Page 20 - Aruba Today

20
SPORTSThursday 3 December 2015
On The Sideline:
Panthers handling talk of unbeaten season in stride Red Sox, D. Price
STEVE REED
AP Sports Writer
CHARLOTTE, North Caro-
lina (AP) — The Carolina
Panthers are the NFL’s sole
unbeaten side at 11-0 fol-
lowing the New England
Patriots loss on Sunday.
Now the focus is solely on
the Panthers.
Talk of an unbeaten season
has begun to permeate
the team’s locker room,
with players being pep-
pered with more questions
after each victory about
matching the 1972 Miami
Dolphins as the NFL’s only
unblemished team.
Rather than fight it, some
Panthers are just enjoying
the ride.
“Hey, winning is fun, it’s very Saints, a team the Panthers
fun,” veteran center Ryan
Kalil said. “As far as the un-
defeated stuff, all I know is
it’s really hard to win every
week.”
But not impossible, safety
Roman Harper said.
“Why can’t we?” Harper
asked, of going 19-0. “We
just have to don’t worry
about it, and when we get
there, we get there.”
Added defensive tackle
Dwan Edwards: “The way
our team is playing it’s go-
ing to take us to not play
well on a Sunday for a
team to beat us.”
Carolina’s schedule cer-
tainly lends itself to a pos-
sible run at perfection.
The Panthers travel to New
Orleans on Sunday before
finishing the season with a
home-and-away series with
slumping Atlanta, at the
New York Giants, and at
home against Tampa Bay.
NFL owners set LA vote meeting for mid-January zuelan also led all PCL out-
BARRY WILNER
AP Pro Football Writer
IRVING, Texas (AP) — NFL
owners have punted on al-
lowing teams to move to
Los Angeles — at least for
five weeks.
The owners on Wednes-
day set a special meeting
to deal with a possible re-
location of teams to Los
Angeles for Jan. 12-13 in
Houston. But Commissioner
Roger Goodell admitted
there might not even be a
vote then.
Carolina Panthers’ Derek Anderson (3) and Joe Webb (14) cel-
ebrate with Cam Newton (1) after Newton scored a touchdown
on a running play during the second half of an NFL football
game against the Dallas Cowboys, Thursday, Nov. 26, 2015, in
Arlington, Texas.
None of those teams are
particularly playing well.
The Saints have lost four
straight games, the Falcons
three, and the Giants two.
The Buccaneers are proba-
bly playing the best of their
remaining foes having won
three of their last five, but
they too lost last weekend
25-12 to Indianapolis.
Quarterback Cam New-
ton said his approach was
to remain focused on the
beat 27-22 at home without
Drew Brees in September.
“We aren’t trying to get
lured in by what others may
think,” Newton said of a
potentially perfect season.
“It’s not a requirement that
we vote at that meeting,”
Goodell said. “There are still ego.
a lot of unknowns to make
that prediction.”
The Rams, Raiders and
Chargers are interested in
moving to LA, which has
not had an NFL franchise
since the Rams and Raid-
ers left after the 1994 sea-
son. But the 32 owners, 24
of whom are required to
OK a franchise relocation,
are seeking more informa-
tion from the cities hoping
(AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth) a foregone conclusion,
“Our main focus — and we
are already reminded by
what coach (Ron) Rivera
says — is to become 12-0
first.” The Panthers, who
haven’t lost a regular sea-
son game in more than a
full year, returned to prac-
tice on Tuesday for the first
time since a dominating
33-14 win over the Dallas
Cowboys last Thursday.
Carolina has the third most
points in the NFL and given
up the third fewest. Yet,
Rivera has kept his play-
ers focused by reminding
them they haven’t played
a complete game yet.
Rivera has an extra car-
rot to dangle in front of
to retain their franchises: St.
Louis, Oakland and San Di-
There also is nothing close
to a clear consensus on ap-
proval of either of the sta-
dium proposals for LA.
Rams owner Stan Kroenke
is planning a billion-dollar
stadium in Inglewood, Cali-
fornia, while the Raiders
and Chargers have a joint
project in mind for nearby
Carson. Kroenke also is will-
ing to share his proposed
stadium with either the
his players this week: If the
Panthers beat the Saints,
they’ll clinch their third
straight NFC South champi-
onship.
In some respects, it seems
but when you’re looking
to keep a team from look-
ing too far ahead anything
helps.
“If you start talking about
undefeated seasons and
trips to the Super Bowl
you’re not focusing on the
details of what you’re do-
ing and who we have to
play next,” Rivera said. “...
Our message here is very
clear — we have a ways to
go and a lot of thing to im-
prove upon.”
Rivera was a linebacker for
the 1985 Super Bowl cham-
pion Chicago Bears, a
team that started 12-0 be-
fore suffering its only loss of part of his career.
the season.
The coach said losing that
Dec. 2, 1985 game to the
Dolphins on a Monday
night was actually a good
thing for the Bears.
“The Miami loss refocused
us,” Rivera said. “It was
(good) at the time for us.
Could we have been a
good undefeated team,
yeah, the ‘85 team might
have been. But we’ll never
know.”
He doesn’t know if a loss
would be good for the Pan-
thers or not.
Right now, the word losing
simply isn’t one that is being
tossed around a Panthers
locker room that has sud-
denly been swarmed by
national media attention.q
Chargers or Raiders.
“All the proposals must be
in by the end of Decem-
ber,” Giants co-owner
Steve Tisch said, adding “it
is the strong hope” of the
league that the vote on
relocation will come out of
that meeting.
Colts owner Jimmy Irsay
added that getting 24
owners to approve any of
the proposals was a difficult
chore, but was optimistic a
decision would be made in
Houston.q
ON DECK
agree to a $217M,
seven year deal
BOSTON (AP) — The Boston
Red Sox and ace pitcher
David Price have agreed
to a deal worth $217 million
over seven years, a per-
son familiar with the nego-
tiations told The Associated
Press.
The person spoke on condi-
tion of anonymity Tuesday
night because the deal
has not yet been signed
and is pending a physical.
Price has a 3.09 ERA in eight
major league seasons with
1,372 strikeouts and 104
wins. The left-hander was
traded from Detroit to To-
ronto last season as the
Blue Jays made a playoff
push in the AL East. One
year earlier, he was traded
to Detroit from Tampa Bay,
where he spent the early
Price is a serious upgrade
for the Red Sox pitching
staff, which struggled last
season as Boston finished
78-84, last in the division.
LA Angels sign up
Venezuelan minor
league OF Ortega
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) —
Outfielder Rafael Ortega
has agreed to a one-year
contract with the Los An-
geles Angels.
Ortega gets a $525,000 sal-
ary in the major leagues
and a $175,000 in the mi-
nors under the deal an-
nounced Tuesday.
He spent last season with
the St. Louis Cardinals’ Tri-
ple-A affiliate in Memphis,
batting .286 with two hom-
ers and 42 RBIs. The Vene-
fielders with 15 assists.
Ortega has spent eight
seasons in the minors, in-
cluding his first six years in
the Colorado system.
He made his only major
league appearances in
two games for the Rockies
in late 2012. He got a hit at
Dodger Stadium in his first
career plate appearance,
reaching base six times
overall.q