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January 30, 2004
Panthers Notebook
Hotel away from home is just fine with Henning
COMPILED BY JOE MENZER
• Dan Henning feels right at home in the team hotel of the Panthers this week during preparations for Sunday's game against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII at Reliant Stadium.
And why wouldn't he? Even though he has been offensive coordinator of the Panthers for two years now, he still lives out of a Residence Inn hotel in Charlotte during the football season.
This year he didn't have to check out in early January as he did a year ago when the Panthers failed to make the playoffs. This year the Panthers are still playing as the calendar is flipped to February. They will face the New England Patriots for the NFL championship on Sunday at 6:25 p.m.
Henning doesn't mind. He loves hotels almost as much as he loves football. Asked why he doesn't at least rent an apartment in Charlotte, Henning threw his head back and laughed as if that was a preposterous suggestion.
"You ask all the coaches. And I would say probably some of the writers, too. During the football season, half the time you don't know where you're waking up anyway," Henning said. "Fortunately, when I wake up, I'm 500 yards away from my desk. I don't have to get in the car. I don't have to worry about the weather or the commute or anything else.
"My wife comes to visit. The dog comes every once in a while to visit. My kids come to games, and I don't need to put any sleeping bags down. I just get two or three more rooms right down the hall from me, and it's like having a basement and an attic right there on the same floor.
"Breakfast is free. They come in and do the dishes every day. They come in and do the laundry every day. Wouldn't you like to live in someplace like that?"
• Dom Capers, the former Panthers head coach who now coaches the Houston Texans, said that he's in the perfect position to offer unique perspective on Sunday's game.
"I have a lot of interest in it because we played both teams - and nobody played both teams like we played 'em. I've had a lot of calls nationally to talk about both teams," Capers said.
The Texans beat the Panthers 14-10 last Nov. 2, and Capers still laments the 23-20 overtime loss to New England three weeks later.
"New England had to come back at the end to tie us. We had a first-and-10 on the 35-yard line - and if I had it to do over again, I would have lined up and kicked a field goal on first down," Capers said. "We ran for zero, we ran for minus-5, and we ended up having to punt the football. We were going to win the game if we kick the field goal in overtime.
"We block a punt, we block a field goal against them. We get three turnovers. Now we didn't move the ball a lot against them, but we were the last team to have a lead on them."
The Patriots have won 14 games in a row.
• Capers was asked to compare Carolina's Kris Jenkins and New England's Richard Seymour, two of the best young defensive linemen in the league.
"They're different-style guys," Capers said. "I think Jenkins is more a pure power guy than Seymour. Seymour is a little more of a finesse, athletic-type of guy. They're both good, now. They're certainly the two best young guys at that position."
So, is one better than the other?
"It's hard to say. There isn't a team in the league that wouldn't love to have both of them," Capers said.
• Brett Favre, quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, was in town to pick up an award sponsored by Snickers for throwing four touchdown passes in a Dec. 22 game against Oakland, which the Packers won 41-7. Favre played in that game despite the fact that his father, Irv, died two days prior to kickoff.
Favre said that he is still upset with himself for throwing the interception in overtime that cost the Packers their NFC divisional playoff game against Philadelphia. Had the Packers pulled that game out, the Panthers would have played the Packers at home in the NFC championship game. Favre remains so upset, in fact, that he said he would not watch this Sunday's Super Bowl.
"Who's playing?" he joked. "Seriously, I won't watch it. I don't really care. No offense to these two teams. I'm sure there will be enough other people watching."
• The Patriots are 9-0 this season against teams with winning records. ... Quarterback Jake Delhomme has the same number of touchdown passes in the playoffs (three) that he had during six seasons as a backup with the New Orleans Saints. ... The Panthers have won nine games this season by seven or fewer points, one shy of the NFL record set by the 1978 Houston Oilers.