LITTLE ROCK — Williams runs with indignity
Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams of Wynne wasn’t pleased with the Washington Redskins “deeming” the Carolina Panthers their homecoming opponent Sunday afternoon in Landover, Md.
The Redskins wore 1937 throwback uniforms and welcomed back several former players. In fact, the Redskins’ game day program said “homecoming,” raising the ire of Williams and his teammates.
“I look on there and it says ‘homecoming.’ And I’m thinking to myself: This is the National Football League. Are you serious?
Homecoming,” Williams said.
“And it’s not like you tried to hide it - you blatantly put it on the front of the Game Day. And you’re talking about somebody fired up today? I was p+++++.
“It was the whole team. That was definitely motivating. You don’t say you’re going to have a ‘homecoming’ in the National Football League. You do it in college. It’s one of those teams that’s just terrible. You don’t book, like, a good team for homecoming.”
Williams rubbed it in with a series of tweets afterward, and quarterback Cam Newton also brought up the issue without any prompting.
“I think it was their homecoming, which was kind of embarrassing for us to be in,” Newton said. “And that was a challenge. I think some of the guys took that and put it as a chip on their shoulder.”
Williams got the last laugh: He scored on a 30-yard touchdown run in the Panthers’ 21-13 victory over the Redskins, snapping a five-game losing streak in the process.
Dooley’s range
When Tennessee football Coach Derek Dooley was asked about the Volunteers’ struggling defense, he went to the 1980s musical well.
“Like Bruce Hornsby and the Range, that’s just the way it is,” Dooley said.
Another line from “The WayIt Is” may fit for Dooley after the Vols’ Nov. 24 game against Kentucky: “Just for fun, he says ‘Get a job.’ ”
Crimson games
From Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times:
“Alabama Coach Nick Saban raised motivation to the next level when he compared his team’s resolve against LSU to the raid in Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden.
“Saban last week showed his team a video about the SEAL Team 6 assault on bin Laden’s compound.
“He figured it might come in handy if his team ever found itself down, 17-14, in the last minute at LSU’s ‘Death Valley.’
“Saban’s message was that things don’t always go as planned, and preparation is the key to avoiding disaster.
“In Pakistan, a helicopter crash almost derailed the mission to get bin Laden.
“In Baton Rouge, it was a freshman tailback fumbling deep in enemy territory.
“ ‘They had trained to be adaptable,’ Saban said of SEAL Team 6. ‘I think there was a lot of that out there today for us.’
“Thank goodness Saban had the decency not to say, ‘both teams got out alive.’ ”
Quote of the day
“If you have that little compassion, respect, love for your teammates, it’s hard for me to show compassion, love for you, if that makes sense.” Arkansas Coach John L. Smith, on linebacker Terrell Williams, who was arrested Sunday on a DWI charge
Sports, Pages 16 on 11/06/2012