Football country?

J's World, by Jeremiah Bartz

College basketball and NASCAR -- each was at the center of the Carolina sports world.

But are they now?

The Carolina Panthers have taken the National Football League by storm as they earned the right to face the New England Patriots for the Super Bowl title. With their success the Panthers have also taken Carolina, and the southern region of the United States by storm, an area once dominated by hoops and car racing.

Headlines were once dominated by Roy Williams and Jeff Gordon, Dean Smith and Dale Earnhardt.

Will Jake Delhomme replace Michael Jordan of North Carolina?

If Delhomme and the gang are hoisting the Lombardi Trophy late this evening, could the Tar Heel's national championships and Earnhardt's Winston Cup wins be just distant memories from the past? Can football really satisfy the southerner's thirst for sports entertainment? This is a region that has listed bass fishing and WWF wrestling over the NFL as the recipients of their entertainment dollar.

Vince McMahon proved with the XFL that anyone associated with pro wrestling has no business in football. But "He Hate Me" is a Panther. Will that bring the rowdy wrasslin' fans to the tube to watch the Panthers?

Maybe they will look for an association with NASCAR? Stephen Davis may run circles around the Patriots, but otherwise the NASCAR fan will have to flush the toilet to watch something go around and around.

Right now the Panthers are the underdog. If Tom Brady and the Patriots pull away with the victory as the prognosticators predict, Carolinans may just forget about football and return to the basketball battles of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the revving engines and clouds of exhaust at the race track.

If Delhomme, who could pass for the quarterback in the movie The Waterboy, and the Panthers pull off the upset, North Carolina's state color could be Panther blue, rather than Tar Heel blue.