Today was a little bit different for Graham Gano.
Ignore the 63-yard field goal – the longest in franchise history and only a yard short of the NFL record – with a tick left on the clock that gave the Panthers a 33-31 win. That was the same – Gano kicks every kick the same, whether it’s a PAT or the longest field goal of his career. Ignore the facetime he had with Deion Sanders after the game – when you ball, you get the call. And ignore the fact that his boys got to spend the 30 minutes after the game Gano spent speaking to reporters playing on the other side of the locker room with the sons of Gano’s fellow specialists Michael Palardy and JJ Jansen – certainly don’t tell Graham how excited his son, wearing a #9 jersey with the word “Daddy” emblazoned instead of his last name, was when he got a bracelet from Cam Newton.
Ignore all of those differences and let’s talk about the special teams unit running out of the tunnel – a first for Gano, whose been in the NFL since 2009.
“They’re all pretty special – but today, running out of the tunnel,” said Gano. “I never dreamed I would have that opportunity as a kid. It’s pretty exciting – I actually try to go around the tunnel usually, because I don’t want to be in the spotlight; but, that was pretty fun with the fire and the smoke and all that – I felt like Cam a little bit.”
OK, we can talk a little bit about the field goal. That’s certainly what everyone else wanted to talk about after the game.
Gano: That was nuts. It felt good and then I heard Mike go ‘Whoo!’ so I was like, ‘It’s got a chance!’ and then everybody was swarming me. I don’t think it’s hit me yet – I’m very blessed to have that opportunity and I’m excited to get the win.
Donte Jackson: We know when 9 is getting out there to go win the game for us, the game is in 9’s hands – well, his foot, actually – we’re never worried. He’s going to get the job done. He’s put in hard work all week, really all year and we have the most confidence in him.
Michael Palardy: Amazing. It was amazing to see. As soon as it came off of his foot – as soon as I heard it, I knew it was good.
Christian McCaffrey: I had the [Microsoft] Surface in my hand and I was going over a play with Coach Skip – I didn’t even realize, didn’t put two and two together, that it was a game-winning field goal – I saw it go in and I saw everybody jumping around so I threw it and joined them.
Ron Rivera: Piece of cake. Piece of cake. Come on now, you know I don’t change my expressions.
Cam Newton: I always have the same vantage point – I get right where the snapper is, I take a knee, and wait. As soon as he kicked it, I didn’t do something that I always do [because] mayhem broke out. I usually try to touch every single person that’s out there, but everybody rushed out there. So I just went to Graham. I am happy that we got a kicker like that. A wise man once told me that a great quarterback is only as good as his kicker. Over the years you see so many quarterbacks get bailed out by the kickers. I shouldn’t say bailed out – I’ll just say helped out – and Graham put the whole team on his back today. Well, on his toe today.
James Bradberry: We have kickoffs and he usually kicks it past the end zone into the stand sometimes, so I figured it’d be easy for him.
#GanoLoGanó #GanoLoGanó #GanoLoGanó #GanoLoGanó #GanoLoGanó #GanoLoGanó #GanoLoGanó #GanoLoGanó pic.twitter.com/e8LI1tgQzO
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) October 7, 2018
It was a – forgive the pun – special day for the special teams unit, as they were introduced to the home fans, a first for the team since December of 2010 and the first time many of the players like Ben Jacobs, Gano and Palardy had been introduced in their career; had they been able to produce the longest field goal in Panthers history only, it would have certainly been a banner day for the special teams – but in the second quarter, when Michael Palardy, who signed a three-year extension to keep him with the Panthers on Tuesday dropped a punt inside the Giants five-yard line and it bounced off of Odell Beckham, Jr’s leg, it was another huge play for the entire special teams unit – emphasis on unit.
“I think when the guys around you have respect for what you do and confidence in what you do and vice versa, you start to see that come out on Sundays,” said Palardy. “Not once do I ever get worried about our protection, not once do I ever get worried about JJ’s snaps and I think that confidence shows in our performence. We are one unit – if JJ does his job, then I can do my job; if I can do my job, then Graham can do his job. And on punt [coverage], if every one guy does their job, we’ve got 11 guys doing everything that needs to be done to put our team in the best position to win.”
If Palardy punts the ball into the end zone, it’s a touchback; if DJ Moore isn’t at the goalline next to Beckham, it’s a touchback; if Samuel doesn’t strip the ball from Janoris Jenkins, it’s Giants ball; if Moore doesn’t jump on Eli Apple, the ball doesn’t squirt free and Colin Jones isn’t there to pounce on it in the end zone – and without that touchdown, the Panthers might not have even been in the position for Gano to make that 63-yarder.
As Gano holds court over a huge scrum of reporters, Devin Funchess – the receiver who usually has a crowd of media outside his locker waiting for him – yelled happily in the kicker’s direction.
“Y’all ask JJ how he snapped that ball! He snapped the hell out of that ball! Y’all talk to Mike! He held the mess out of that ball!”
Even in his moment of glory, the rest of the specialists get a shoutout.
Guess today isn’t that different after all.
