You wouldn’t have a clue from reading the Uptown paper of record (more on that in sec) but one of the hottest topics in Charlotte sports circles right now is the notion of adding Bengal WR Chad Johnson to the Panthers. Why, reporters for other papers have written whole columns on the idea, which is in heavy rotation on Charlotte sports radio for the second day in a row.
In a nutshell, Johnson told WFNZ’s Mark Packer in an interview Wednesday evening that he’d love to play with his old JUCO teammate Steve Smith. “Hey, 89 and 85 equals Super Bowl,” Johnson related. To be fair, Johnson wants to go just about anywhere besides Cincinnati right now, but he clearly seems juiced by about the idea of hooking up with one of the few WRs more explosive than he has been over the years. And durable — the guy does not miss games.
Me, I’d find a way to get it done — once I asked $#89 what he thinks of the idea. Assuming Smitty is on board, I try to get it done. But back to our local daily. Here’s commenter JF from the CO’s Panther blog on what he sees:
C’mon, Observer. This blog is a disgrace, as is the newspaper’s sports coverage. Explain to be how smaller papers, with smaller staffs and less circulation, routinely run circles around the Observer’s sports coverage? To get anything substantive about the Panthers you have to read the Rock Hill Herald or Gaston Gazette, who always break stories before the Observer and do a MUCH better job going into depth. The Herald recently ran a great investigative piece about the Panthers’ salary cap situation, and they update their site far more frequently than this unbelievably lame blog. And when the Observer does update their Panthers stories, they say absolutely nothing that a casual fan doesn’t already know. Really, Carr wasn’t any good? Peppers had a disappointing season? John Fox isn’t good with the media? Wow, I hope Sorensen writes some 400-word hackjob column about it!
The truth hurts. And it is getting around. McClatchy paid to send at least two reporters to the Super Bowl in Arizona — and somehow they miss one of the biggest stories of the off-season so far.
