Doesn't play, doesn't win
Saints' Collins returns to old team, fans in Carolina
Posted: Sunday November 01, 1998 06:57 PM
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Collins was booed when he entered Ericsson Stadium in his return to the place where he played the past 2 1/2 seasons AP |
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (AP) -- Kerry Collins took himself
out of the Carolina
Panthers lineup last month. Mike Ditka didn't have the heart to return
him to the field Sunday against his former team.
Collins, the first draft pick of the expansion Panthers in 1995, was
claimed off waivers by the New Orleans Saints on
October 14 after coach Dom Capers said the quarterback told him his heart
was no longer in the game.
The former Pro Bowler stood on the sideline Sunday in a baseball hat with
arms folded in his team's 31-17 loss at Ericsson Stadium, where he led the
Panthers to the NFC title game not too long ago.
The Saints' second-string QB only watched as starter Billy Joe Tolliver had an
ineffective day against the previously winless Panthers.
"I told the guys in the locker room that there's a guy on the other
sideline that didn't think you guys were good enough to play with," said
Panthers fullback William
Floyd, referring to Collins. "I think it was just time the guys took a
stand and they did."
However, some Panthers still paid Collins respect. Starting QB Steve Beuerlein hugged his
friend and former teammate at midfield after the game.
"He is a guy who was a part of this family from the beginning and you just
can't cut loose with those feelings and emotions," Beuerlein said.
Only a "Good Luck Kerry" placard remained in Collins' locker when reporters
entered the Saints locker room, and Ditka wasn't in much of a mood to talk
about Collins.
When asked if it crossed his mind to use Collins against the Panthers, the
coach said: "I don't have a mind."
Ditka said before the Panthers game that Collins would probably start in
two weeks at home against the St. Louis Rams. The
situation remained murky after the loss to the Panthers.
"We'll see. I don't know what's going to happen," Ditka said when asked if
he was backing off his earlier statement.
Collins was booed when he entered the stadium where he played the past 2
1/2 seasons, and when he left at halftime.
Some fans wore their feelings on their backs. One man walking into the
stadium had patched over the final five letters of his No. 12 Collins
jersey and replaced it with "Coward." Another woman had "Quitter" on the
back of her Collins jersey and an "X" over his number.
"One banner read: "Actually, Kerry you have a big heart. Trick or Treat?"
With the Panthers holding a 21-point lead midway through the third quarter,
fans began a mock chant of "Kerry, Kerry." Security officials also removed
a stuffed Collins doll suspended over the wall in one end zone with a noose
around its neck.
Rookie offensive tackle Kyle Turley said some of
the Saints players joked with Collins before the game in an effort to relax
him.
"I was asking him if he had one of those things that the pope has, that
bulletproof glass he has when he gets off the airplane and goes to the
hotel or out to eat," Turley said. "I was telling everybody not to stand by
him because you may get a red dot on your forehead."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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