Goodbye to a (weird) legend in Carolina

By Os Davis  |   Thursday, March 08, 2007  |  Comments( 2 )

Carolina Panthers
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Maybe there should be a moment of silence, a few quiet seconds of reflection on the sad passing of a true legend from NFL football. That is, at least from fans of the 31 franchises not named the Carolina Panthers.

Yes, football fans, it's true: Gridiron's answer to Mario Mendoza, Chris Weinke, has been released from the Panthers. Surely the game will never be the same.

As loathsome as the race to label anyone in 21st century sports an "all-time great" has become, one can't help but apply superlatives to the legendary Weinke.

That is, at least in terms of straight-up oddity.

For Weinke was truly the real thing, a two-sport star who took the road less traveled on his way to the Heisman Trophy in 2000: After graduating from high school, Weinke got in with the Toronto Blue Jays' organization to play minor-league baseball for six years before enrolling at Florida State University. As a 28-year-old senior, Weinke became the oldest player to win college football's highest individual honor; because of Weinke's age, Carolina took him in the fourth round.

Weinke entered the league with a bang, followed by 10s of thousands of Carolinian whimpers. The 2001 Panthers were a memorable 1-15; rookie Weinke now holds the record for consecutive losses suffered by a starting quarterback. He wouldn't start again in 2002 and in fact did not record a single play's worth of action on the field in 2003 and 2004.

Yet he wouldn't go away, his work ethic and sheer willpower seemingly keeping him on the Panthers' roster year after year...

In 2005, Weinke posted his career-high QB rating of 93.1 while not throwing a single interception all season. Unfortunately, that represented a total of 13 passing attempts in 21 plays spread over three games.

Last season, Weinke got his first start in six years. He only went out and set the Panthers' franchise record for passing yardage in a game with 423 on an incredible Rich Gannon-like 61 attempts. Three interceptions, however, helped keep that game well in the hands of the New York Giants and resulted in a hope-crushing, 27-13 loss.

Ultimately, in what will most likely be his final game in the NFL (look out Colorado Crush!), Weinke found an opponent he could beat: The Atlanta Falcons. In black-and-white contrast to the Giants game, Weinke notched just seven attempts while passing for a TD against zero picks. Insanely enough, the Panthers employed a direct snap to DeAngelo Williams, advertising the run rather than give the Weinke the ball.

Weinke's career record as a starter sits at 2-18; his career QB rating is 61.39. For the sake of comparison, the career rating of ultimate stat killer Ryan Leaf is 49.95.

To compare the great Weinke to Leaf is a disservice, however. For not only can ol' Ryan's career never be duplicated, Weinke was truly one of a kind. He will surely be missed in Carolina land.

Unless, of course, the Panthers pick up the now-available Joey Harrington...
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's ...
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