Pro. Jake Delhomme

[Turbine]

Very nice PantherCanada.

We need to put a permanent link to your site somewhere in the header menu bar.

[Pirogue]

welcome :O)

[Pirogue]

I was mildlyexcited...

[Zeebart21]

Panther Canada, welcome aboard....

Great website, by the way....

Congrats, we(I) have made you an honorary Cajun!!!

Z.

[PantherCanada]

Originally posted by Zeebart21
Congrats, we(I) have made you an honorary Cajun!!!

[AirBill]

Originally posted by PantherCanada
Yep... 85 yards to Muhsin Muhammad.

True dat ... did anyone see what happened to Jake AFTER that play, and his reaction to it? To me, it was the highlight of the game.

[Zeebart21]

Bill, refresh my memory.

What did Jake do after the TD????

Z.

[AirBill]

He's running down the field celebrating when Ty Law (I think) gave him a hard bump with his shoulder, trying to intimidate him. Jake spun right around and, with a wild look in his eyes, said something along the lines of, "Hey, we're kicking your ~~~~~es, buddy!!!!!" I still get a smile when I think about it.

[Zeebart21]

I remember now...

Thanks

[NewsCopy]

SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- As evidenced by the slightly sweat-stained blue baseball cap, its bill tilted ever so rakishly upward as he addressed the media during the break between Saturday practice sessions, Jake Delhomme hasn't allowed success to go to his head.

The lone luxury the Carolina Panthers quarterback permitted himself after signing a six-year contract extension in June that could pay him as much as $38 million, and included about $12 million in bonuses: A brand-new, souped-up Kubota tractor to help mow the grass at the Lafayette, La., horse farm in which he is a partner.

Had the homespun Delhomme completed the improbable journey for both the Panthers and himself on Feb. 1 to upend the heavily favored New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, he almost certainly would have won a Cadillac as the game's most valuable player. Then again, since Cadillac doesn't manufacture pick-ups, it's a good bet Delhomme would have had a difficult time choosing a vehicle from the company's upscale product line.

He would have probably been about as uneasy tooling around his hometown of Breaux Bridge, La., in a Caddy as he is discussing his new contract, a deal that made Delhomme richer than his dreams and provided him and his family unimagined security. There is a certain discomfort level, one that harkens back to a time when it was considered impolite to ask a man about the size of his paycheck, with which one assumes Delhomme grew up and which he still exhibits.

So is it even remotely possible that success might spoil Delhomme? Uh, probably not.

"Down home, money doesn't define who a person is, and that won't ever change, I don't think," said Delhomme, the latest in a long line of notable quarterbacks from the Bayou State. "Pretty much the only time I have to talk about (the new extension) is when I am somewhere other than home. I mean, I was raised to believe that you try to enjoy yourself as much as possible. You go out and live your life."

Right now, Delhomme is living life, and definitely living it large.

The money aside, Delhomme is in a good place right now, at a level he wasn't certain he would ever get the chance to achieve, at least at the professional level. Along with wife Keri and 19-month-old daughter Lauren, with whom he recently moved into a new house in Charlotte that was purchased even before he got his big raise, there aren't any material needs that seem a priority. Indeed, a guy who appeared in just six games during his first five seasons, who threw only 86 passes in an often frustrating tenure with New Orleans, isn't quite on top of the football world.

But he's darn close. And from where Delhomme is perched, the view, apparently, is pretty good.

"Yeah, I think there are probably some times when he wants to pinch himself," allowed wide receiver Ricky Proehl. "This has all come pretty fast. But he's earned it. Jake is one of those overnight sensations, like they say, who was a lot of years in the making. Jake had to go around the block a few times."

The man most responsible for bringing Delhomme to Carolina, and for signing him to a modest, two-year, $4 million deal in the spring of 2003 as an unrestricted free agent, is Carolina general manager Marty Hurney. For reasons that not even he fully understands, Hurney began to plot the acquisition of Delhomme more than a year before he hit the free agent market. His sparse playing time notwithstanding, there was simply something about Delhomme that Hurney and the Panthers scouts liked a lot.

On those fleeting occasions in which he played -- and they were few, including two stints in the NFL Europe League, where Delhomme was once the backup to Kurt Warner -- the former Louisiana-Lafayette star stirred things up as if he were mixing a big vat of gumbo. Neither particularly athletic, nor blessed with superior arm strength, there still was more than a hint of passion for the game.

"All I know is, any time he got a chance to play, he made something good happen," said Hurney. "And even on tape, you could see his passion for the game, and how it rubbed off on his teammates. He just has that kind of spark about him."

The Saints made a lukewarm attempt to retain Delhomme before he bolted for Carolina, but could not promise him the starting job. Dallas coach Bill Parcells, a big Delhomme booster, flirted with the notion of signing him, then backed off. In the end, the Panthers were really the only team seriously pursuing him last spring.

The rest of the story

Senior writer Len Pasquarelli covers the NFL for ESPN.com.

[NewsCopy]

Jake feeling sure of himself

A year ago when Jake Delhomme came to the Carolina Panthers' training camp, he walked in unsure of how much he'd play or what his role would be.

This year, for the first time since college, he came in sure of those things, and in turn, more sure of himself.

Delhomme's circumstances have changed, but his personality hasn't.

He's still humble, still able to laugh at himself and still not absorbed with the culture of celebrity that follows an NFL starting quarterback.

But he does seem to have grown into his role, and he has begun to be comfortable with the new identity.

He was a question mark a year ago, but now he's the unquestioned leader of the team.

"I think he knows now it's his football team, and his confidence is tremendously high right now," veteran wide receiver Ricky Proehl said Sunday in Spartanburg, S.C.

Panthers coach John Fox has seen the subtle change and knows his team can only benefit as the once-unknown, yet natural leader gets more experience.

"Without a doubt," Fox said when asked if Delhomme seemed more comfortable this year. "I saw more comfort as the season went on last year. A lot of this game is mental, more than people recognize. He definitely has a better comfort level, a better understanding of what we're doing and the people around him - he knows his teammates better.

"I anticipate steady improvement as we progress on this season."

The rest of the story

By DARIN GANTT
ROCK HILL HERALD

[Zeebart21]

Cadillac does manufacture pickups..

What about that Escalade thingy?

Z.