Peter king's 3 questions with Fox

THREE QUESTIONS WITH ...
... Carolina coach John Fox, who has his Panthers at 5-7 following a four-game winning streak.

MMQBTE: We all left you for dead a few weeks ago. What happened?

Fox: Our players have just risen up and responded to the challenge. It's as simple as that. The way we pick players is a lot like how New England picks its guys. It's not just based on ability. And so when you're really struggling, and you've got so many injuries, you better have guys who are going to go out every week and play hard. Football's not just a star game. And our backup guys have really come through for us.

MMQBTE: Why have you had to use so many running backs this season?

Fox: Well, we came into the year thinking Stephen Davis was going to be our main back, with DeShaun Foster getting more opportunities. I figured at the start of the season maybe the carries would be split about 60-40, with Davis getting the 60. But he went down early with a knee injury, and then we lost DeShaun to a broken collarbone right after that. Then our third back, Rod Smart, blew out his knee returning a kick. Then we used Brad Hoover, who really was our fullback, and we wore him out. We brought Joey Harris up from the practice squad one week, and on Friday he strained his hamstring pretty bad. He was out. We then had to go sign a guy -- Jamal Robertson -- and bring him in right away. He was on the plane with us to San Francisco, but nobody on the team knew who he was. The night before the game, in our team meeting, I told everybody, "Guys, this is our new running back, Jamal Robertson." By that time, the guy who started the year as our backup fullback, Nick Goings, was playing. He's done a real good job for us.

MMQBTE: Is the fact that so many 5-7 teams are still in the hunt in December good for the NFL or bad for the league?

Fox: I'd say it's good. I mean, in baseball, at the beginning of the year, you know the Yankees and the Red Sox are going to be in it, but how many other teams every year are going to have a chance?

 

Thats a dumb fucking question.

 

It was a leading question to get a story for the column. Not everyone in America has followed the Panthers in detail. Standard journalism.

 

Are record being what it was, not everyone in North Carolina followed the Panthers in detail. :xyzthumbs