« Rumor-Rumor-Randy-Moss-To-Carolina | Home | Cats Re-sign Brad Hoover »
Moose Signing Official
By Brinson | February 29, 2008
Oh yeah. I totally forgot to mention that Muhsin Muhammad has actually been signed by the Panthers. Chalk it up to all the hubbub surrounding the release of Mittens and the crotch adjusting rumors that Randy Moss might be landing in the Cackalack.
This is very good news. Moose, of course, had his career year with the Cats, busting out for over 1400 yards before signing a lucrative free agent contract with the Bears, which they likely regret. As an example of a potential negative side effect, Matt Mosely has a pretty good story about Moose from when he was working in the local Cha-town media over at Hashmarks as well:
The Raiders beat the Panthers 52-9 and were facing a Christmas Eve flight back to Charlotte. But Muhammad was the only happy guy in the locker room. After all, he had just made his 100th catch of the season.
“From the ashes and the rubble, I guess you could say a flower grew today,” Muhammad told reporters at the time and “The Flower” was born. He also spurned the Panthers after the 2004 season because the Bears were offering a little bit more money.
I thought it was a little more sarcastic than necessary, but then again, I wasn’t exactly covering Moose and dealing with his ego - likely fairly large. However, at this point, Muhammad has been dealing with Rex Grossman for the past few years and is probably pretty sick of being underthrown, if targeted at all. Moose cashed a huge paycheck, didn’t produce much, and as Mosley points out, he’s now back to play more of a mentor role to Dwayne Jarrett than anything else.
Personally, I tend to think of him as a legit number two, and maybe a mentor down the line, but maybe my expectations are a little too high. Of course … ideally he’d play slot in between Steve Smith and Randy Moss, but again, dreams are nice. Either way, expect Moose to have a pretty large impact on the 2008 season. A positive one too, if only because we won’t be hearing Keary Colbert’s name getting called. Like it ever was in the first place.