Random thoughts and surreal - NFCSC edition

It's weird. Life has been....kinda good.

I sat on my piece of shit ass the other day on my couch, while my too beautiful for me girlfriend cooked for me, my kids played in their customized Panther jerseys, and I fucked around on the internet looking at Panther shit...thinking, what a nice few weeks. We're in the playoffs.

Here it is, Sunday night....enjoyed a wonderful birthday party with my buddy, full on hamburgers off the grill and cake...and I watch the videos of the Panthers celebrating the win...and sometimes, you just have to know when life is good. I'm staring at a new job, which could potentially pay me more than I've ever made in my life...and the fucking Panthers are the NFC South Champions.

Critical game, and the DL got NINE SACKS. I keep remembering how the DL shit the bed in the Superbowl....ya know what? Fuck you Julius Peppers. Enjoy the loss you **********.

We got NINE SACKS in a game we needed. God willing, if we go to the Superbowl, I think that unit comes out firing....

Man, good teams win pretty and ugly. We won ugly today, but we did it in the dome. We broke their hearts too. They had it. They had the game. They were staring down ripping our hearts out and snapped the ball and their hopes of finishing strong away....

I love Mike Mitchell. Man, I was so wrong about him. This guy is a true Panther, and fit in so well. Not only has he played well, he loves this team, his players, and he's been a lightning rod for us.

I hate it that Chud was fired. Whether we agree on him as a board or not, he was a Panther, and what they did with him was bullshit. One season? I hate it when people lose their jobs. TOugh for the family, the man, the team, the players....I hate black Friday has become a "thing" in the NFL, almost like the draft. Very bizarre and very shitty.

The Niners look pretty fucking strong. But we're built to play them. And we're built to play Seattle.

I'm worried about the Saints and the Eagles....hell, I'm worried about all of it...but there isn't a team out there that scares me too much.

I want Denver in the Superbowl. I don't know why. I want them or Indi, and I want them dead in it.

I want to destroy John Fox.

More?

I want to beat the piss out of Andrew Luck. I want to beat him in the Superbowl and say FUCK you, you c unt.

Hardy has to stay. It was nice to see him almost in tears, happy to win, to be this deep in a season. He belongs here.

Cam needs practice. Lots of it. Jesus, we've got to get a handle on him before it costs us big....

Won't get ahead of myself, but it's been so long before we could say....

this could be our season....but ya know what?

THIS CAN BE OUR SEASON.

We took the NFCS.

We will take the NFC.

We will take the NFL.

And to do it, on Sunday, December 29th, 2013, we took the fucking Georgia Dome. Hopefully some of our people pissed on the seats.

 

Right on, bro.

I had doubts after blowing the lead at Buffalo.

Even more doubts after being disassembled like a cheap Duplo set in Arizona.

I am happy as hell for Rivera. Not that this is the pinnacle, not at all. But, there's something to be said about being patient. The last two seasons were adventurous, if not heartbreaking at times. The two seasons prior were uneventful-to-xcomical.

Watching Fox leave did hurt. Not just the sentiment, but the proven track-record of playoff success.

McDermott, and Steve Wilkes in particular, deserve a free year's worth of Bo-Rounds and a briefcase of cash for their efforts.

The offense is problematic, and Newton is still not mechanically fit to be what he can and should be. The right tackle is very bad at his job. Donald LaFell seduces nursing home widows, just to dig through their dresser drawers for stained panties and antiques with viable resale value.

All that, and when it matters, the team either catches a break and exploits it, or in a more typical circumstance, executes at a high level in critical situations.

I sat drenched in the uppers 8 days ago in Charlotte, feeling an emptiness after the infamous Riverboat 2-min Punt. My brother, who knows more about football than anyone I know, eyed the clock, the wind, the situation. Told me to simply "believe". I didn't, until Cam rifled that beauty into Ginn's hands on the deep crossing route. My belief was soon restored, and as a result, I was a much more confident spectator of my team against Atlanta - even down 10-0 early.

This franchise's finest hour was Ricky Proehl putting us on the doorstep of a ring - the floating TD catch from Jake with less than :90 left in the 2003 season.

The road to that doorstep was, as you will recall, littered with many variables: luck, good health, clutch plays, a trio of post-Thanksgiving losses. That was a very unique run.

As is this. Hard to compare seasons, so don't. But, hey, enjoy being the bull. God knows we prepped enough bulls for the past 60 months.

A home playoff game. #2 seed. Two wins away from another shot at that ring. I'm a happy fan, proud of this team's identity and character, and ecstatic to have witnessed a rare Mike Smith double-cucking.

I believe again. In the end, as a fan, that's a good place to be.

 

Awesome.

I hope that's from tonight.

 

I created Riverboat Ron. Hence I'm directly responsible for our turnaround.

 

Wonderful.

Agreed on all of it. All of it.

This is elation. And I'm so happy, win or lose, we get one more week just to relax and bask in it a little.

As players, they earned that.

As fans, so did we. We pour our hearts into it as well. And game balls to the fans who gave us the big play to confuse their center and win the game. All of them. Old ladies, goofy looking fuckers, the kids, the soccer moms and emasculate dads who drive their SUVs and get beat by their cheating wives, the people who you'd be embarrassed to hang out at a karaoke concert with....wearing their jerseys, necklaces, gear, waving their hands around unabashedly, they fucking represented. I couldn't go, and I don't deserve a game ball. They do. They fucking do.

But we all earned it. With our hearts and our fucking masochistic tendencies to hang around regardless of the outcomes. We bitch, we moan, we complain, we love, we cheer, and we earn it. We spend lots of money on this game, we invest on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays, we earned this.

Goddamn, what about a GAME makes me so happy.

I don't know...and perhaps I should be ashamed...but fuck it.

This is fandom. Tonight we're in the glow....we are in the fucking glow.

Panthers.

Carolina Panthers.

That shit's strong.

I'm happy for Rivera too. I remember the presser where he cried, and talked about his wife. I'm happy for him.


Edit- the edited post was even better. I wasn't in the stands sadly, but felt the same thing. The discord, and then the restored belief. We're all damn fools.

But yes. This team has given me reason to believe. I do. I'm not going to jinx anything, not that I believe in that shit or the black cat garbage...it annoys me...however, I'm not going to come out and "say" it...but I think I know where this season is going. I know.

And I'm fucking giddy over it.

 

I have developed a well-tuned philosophy about football:

Winning feels great. Losing fucking sucks. A tie is goddamn hell.

 

The curse of being rational is that while you never get too low during the tough times, you can't be too exuberant during the highs. I appreciate this season as an unexpected gift where a coach I doubted and a secondary I couldn't pick out of a lineup put it all together on a magical streak of grit and luck, but I can't make myself ignore the massive offensive flaws. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm not full of hopes for the playoffs so I'm not going to be disappointed. If we advance, awesome, and if we don't then I'll appreciate simply getting there.

 

Hell yeah man. Hell yeah.

 

Art Vandelay runs this shit.