Super Bowl LVI had a lot. There was the action-packed game. There was the epic halftime show with performances from Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Eminem (and a briefly-upside-down 50 Cent). And there was the fact that the winning Rams had Matthew Stafford at quarterback.
Once, the Panthers were in talks to get Stafford, now a Super Bowl champion. But could have taken Carolina to the big game?
“Well, Matthew Stafford is a great quarterback. I think he has a Hall of Fame resume, but the Rams also have the best cornerback in football, the best defensive player in football, the best player in football and two great wide receivers,” The Charlotte Observer’s Langston Wertz Jr. told WFAE’s Gwendolyn Glenn on this week’s Time Out for Sports. “He wouldn’t have had all those things in Charlotte, so no, I don’t think he would have taken the Panthers to the championship game. I think they would have had a better season than they had, though.”
Still, the Carolinas were represented on the field at SoFi Stadium on Sunday. The Rams’ John Wolford, Ernest Jones and Kyle Markway all have connections to the Carolinas, and so do Jessie Bates, Akeem Davis-Gaither, B.J. Hill, Germaine Pratt and D’Ante Smith with the Cincinnati Bengals.
“Wolford’s in his second year,” Wertz said of the Rams’ backup quarterback. “He’s 26 years old, came out of Wake Forest. He went undrafted. Lincoln Riley, the 2018 Big 12 coach of the year, tried to recruit him to East Carolina. He saw something in him. And this kid went to Wake Forst and set bowl game records with 32 completions, 400 yards against Texas A&M. He one time beat Lamar Jackson in Louisville when he threw for 461 yards and five touchdowns.”
You can listen to the full Time Out for Sports conversation above. Here’s a quick look at what else Glenn and Wertz covered this week.
- There’s a recap of the Charlotte Hornets Friday win against Detroit and Saturday loss to Memphis.
- There’s a rundown of the Hornets’ decision to bring in new center Montrez Harrell from Washington.
- They look back at Thursday’s Clemson-Duke men’s basketball game in which the Blue Devils won 82-64 — including a controversial foul that we'll post a video of below.
- There’s a glance at the biggest local high school sports news.
