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Hey, Darin. I am a loyal fan of the Mailbag and a fan from the West Coast. What do you think of the first few moves of free agency? Can we expect more moves to still come? I go to every Panthers game in Seattle and Arizona and, most recently, Las Vegas. What's your fondest road game memory? And what is your favorite current road stadium to visit? — Trey, Mountlake Terrace, WA
Most of the work is done. That's not to say they won't shop around the edges of free agency, but that table has been picked clean like a church potluck after the people who sit in the back go through the line first. The deviled eggs and good chicken are gone, but there's all the three-bean salad and eight varieties of slaw you want.
Beans and cabbage are important too, just harder to get people excited about.
My favorite memory of a Panthers road game is in a city that doesn't even have the NFL anymore. The double-overtime playoff game in St. Louis after the 2003 season will always stick in my mind, or whatever of it is left.
Not just because I was standing on the sidelines during the entire overtime, watching the respective offensive and defensive lines rise and fall gently against each other like tides, long past the time they had the crashing energy of waves.
And not just because Steve Smith's "X-Clown" touchdown made one of the loudest stadiums I've ever been in as quiet as any funeral home I've ever been through. (Head down, a mumbled "sorry for your loss," as you walk out with a respectful nod.)
But after that game, watching Jake Delhomme and Kurt Warner walk off the field and toward the locker room, arm in arm, was something I'll always remember. Delhomme might have been Warner's backup with the Amsterdam Admirals in 1998, but that day in 2004, he beat one of the best offenses the game has ever seen at their own game. It was a moment a young Panthers team announced to the world it was legit.
As far as the road trip itself, it's hard to beat your hood. The Pacific Northwest is amazing. Vacationed there once in the summer, and it was sublime. I am reliably informed it's not always July, however. The 2005 Panthers had their walk-through before the NFC Championship Game at Husky Stadium, which might be the most picturesque setting for football I've ever seen other than Kidd Brewer Stadium. Seattle is an amazing town in so many ways beyond the fish-throwers at the market or Starbucks One (where I once ordered "medium coffee, black" because I'm just difficult sometimes). From the Fremont Troll to the Lenin Statue just because to a perfect 10K loop around Lake Union, to the music to the food, it's a great city.
It's a long trip, and it never lasts long enough, but I always love going there.