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January 25, 2004
This Safety Belts
Minter is well known for bone-jarring hits despite his small size
By Joe Menzer | JOURNAL REPORTER
CHARLOTTE
Fans aren't the only ones who enjoy watching strong safety Mike Minter of the Carolina Panthers lay people out.
Take Brentson Buckner, for instance. Buckner, a defensive tackle who happens to be one on Minter's Carolina teammates, will be watching film of a game when suddenly he becomes fixated on Minter's latest crushing blow.
In a game often dominated by big men, Minter, 5-10 and 195 pounds, packs a powerful punch. His jarring tackles often are the best highlight material in the film rooms where Panthers are supposed to be studying opponents, but sometimes get caught up in admiring Minter's latest hit job.
Buckner, an avid film watcher, even archives the stuff. The Panthers might be preparing to play the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston a week from today.
But Buckner still sometimes finds himself watching videotape of Minter stopping Deuce McAllister, a 6-1, 221-pound running back with the Saints, 1 yard short of the first-down marker to help preserve a Panthers win at New Orleans earlier this season.
"If you asked anybody in the stadium that day what was going to happen if it was Deuce McAllister against Mike Minter and they had to go one more yard for a first down, everybody would have been like, 'Deuce is going to get the first down.' But no. Mint stopped him," Buckner said. "Just to see the impact and the power that comes out of that small body, it's amazing. It's fun. I watched that one over and over again.
"Now I'm stuck on the one against James Thrash last week against Philadelphia. Oh man, that's one of the most violent hits I've seen in a while. You almost feel sorry for some of these dudes. They don't know where they're at half the time when Mint's through with 'em."
Thrash is a wide receiver with the Eagles, who fell victim to the Panthers 14-3 in the NFC championship game in Philadelphia last Sunday. On the play that Buckner now has logged in on his favorites list on his computer, Thrash looked as if he was going to catch a pass from Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb for a critical Eagles first down. Instead Minter drilled him, the ball popped loose - and cornerback Ricky Manning Jr. grabbed it for one of his three interceptions on the day.
Manning got the glory, but Minter really made the play. He enjoyed rattling Thrash's bones, too.
"That's what it's all about. I just think football is a physical game and the more you hit, the better off your team is going to be. I feel like you take 90 percent of a receiver out if you hit him," Minter said.
The right hard hit, Minter said, is better than an interception.
"If you hit him hard enough, he'll be thinking about you instead of that ball. If you intercepted it, he'll still be thinking about the ball," Minter said. "That's why I enjoy hitting the receivers and having my DBs (his fellow defensive backs) be physical also. I just know that it goes a long way when you are physical with wideouts."
Growing up a Cowboys fan
Minter wasn't always this way. Growing up in Lawton, Okla., he remembers playing football in the front yard every Sunday with his younger brother, William.
He didn't permit himself to get physical with William.
"I never hit him too hard because that wouldn't have been good. I would have gotten into trouble over that," Minter said.
Minter rarely got into trouble.
"I was always good. I just loved playing sports. I did well in school. I never had a 'C' on my report card my whole time in school," Minter said.
"I always just thought that was taking care of business, and that's what you should do. I've always been the type of guy who didn't fool around too much and took care of business. If you take of business, your business will take care of you. I've always had that approach to life."
He focused early on what business he wanted to pursue. It was football.
"That's all I ever wanted to be: a football player," Minter said.
He was a die-hard Dallas Cowboys fan.
"We didn't have that much money, so I didn't have all the store-bought gear," Minter said. "I could draw that star, though. I would draw stars on my clothes and stuff other clothes under my sweatshirt so it looked like I had pads on underneath. Then I would cut my jeans so they looked like football pants. I would get in trouble over that.
"But every Sunday morning, we would go out and play football in the yard. Just me and my brother. We would make it up as we went. We would pretend we were playing in the Super Bowl. I can remember it like it was yesterday."
He has other memories that have always been there, but lately have been flooding his mind even more than usual.
"When I was three or four years old, I can remember running around and the Dallas Cowboys were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl. I remember just watching those guys and wanting to do that. I always wanted to do that.
"Now I've got the opportunity to play in the biggest game in football. It's awesome."
Letting go
That's right, Minter grew up a Cowboys fan.
"I loved those Cowboys, man - all the way up until the day I got drafted. Once I got drafted, I had to let 'em go," Minter said.
The Panthers drafted Minter in the second round in 1997 out of Nebraska, where he played on the Cornhuskers' national-championship teams in 1994 and 1995. He made the transition from two-way star in high school, when he led the state of Oklahoma in rushing his senior year and also played free safety, to full-time enforcer in the defensive backfield.
In high school he did it all. He was a two-way star in football, averaged 21 points in basketball and was a member of the National Honor Society.
In college he began honing the skills that would take him to the NFL. A devout Christian who aspires to become pastor of a church when his playing days are over, he also came to grips very quickly with the physical side of pro football.
Asked how it is that a devout Christian who often speaks of love for his fellow man and brotherhood can reconcile with the fact that for 16 or more Sundays every year he's a paid hit man, Minter smiled before launching into his explanation.
"Man, you know what? The game calls for that to happen - and you want to do it 100 percent. That's what the Lord calls you to do," Minter said. "He calls you to do whatever you do as hard as you can, and as best as you can.
"This is what I chose to do. It's like you (in the media) being a writer. The Lord calls you to do your best. You want to write the best story that you can. You do your research, you do your interviews, you stay up late at night and you put in the time to write that good story. You want to do your best, because that's going to give glory to Him at the end of the day - because of the simple fact that he changed your life, he changed your way of thinking. That's what it's all about.
"So that's why you can go out there and knock a man out, and then pick him up. As long as you pick him up and tell him, 'Good job. See you next time,' it's OK. Sometimes they don't know where they're at, but it's OK."
Life as a Panther
When Minter joined the Panthers, the team was coming off a heady year. It was the 1996 season when they finished 12-4 in the regular season to win the NFC West division and then advanced to the NFC championship game by beating Minter's former favorite team, the defending Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys.
He thought he was joining a team on the rise, one that would routinely contend for the Super Bowl title.
Instead, although he started as a rookie, the team finished the next year just 7-9. Then came the real harbinger of the bad times to come. The team went 4-12 the next season and Minter was limited to just four starts after developing a staph infection as the result of a complications from surgery on his left knee.
Coach Dom Capers was fired. George Seifert was hired to replace Capers.
One of Seifert's first moves was to move Minter from his more natural position of strong safety to free safety. A year later, Seifert spent the team's first two draft picks on a couple of safeties - Rashard Anderson and Deon Grant - possibly to replace Minter and Brent Alexander, the starting strong safety.
In 2000, Seifert switched Minter back to strong safety. But the team, which had finished 8-8 during Sefiert's first season, seemed to be sliding the wrong way. The Panthers lost their regular-season finale in Oakland 52-9, finished 7-9 and decided to start all over with a rebuilding project the next year.
Minter was an unrestricted free agent. He wasn't sure he wanted to stay with the Panthers, and the Cleveland Browns were ready to throw a whole bunch of money at him. But as he prepared to board a plane to fly to Cleveland to hear their final sales pitch - perhaps even to sign with the Browns - he said he felt the Lord calling him to stay in Carolina.
He re-signed with the Panthers instead, and promptly endured a 1-15 season that led to Seifert's firing.
"That 1-15 season will make you doubt everything," Minter said. "That will make you doubt yourself, what you're doing here, everything. Because right before that season, I re-signed to come back because I thought the Lord wanted me here for something special. It could have been a Super Bowl or something else, but I knew it was going to be something special.
"To go through that 1-15 season right after that, now you're thinking like, 'Man, did I hear Him right? Maybe I need to check my ears.' And at that time, Cleveland was the other team I might have went to - and they were doing well. They made it to the playoffs that year. So it was a pretty tough time, but that's what faith is all about. That's when your faith really has to kick in."
It kicked in, and here he is today, preparing to play in a Super Bowl as a member of the Panthers. He said that the wait has been worth it.
"This is the ultimate. This is what you think about, this is what you dream about," Minter said. "It's worth any amount of years or any amount of stuff you've got to go through to get here."
• Joe Menzer can be reached at jmenzer@wsjournal.com