Legends Midseason Update - Pappy Speaks with Stephen A. Smith - Pappy Knuckles's Blog

Pappy Knuckles's Blog

Legends Midseason Update - Pappy Speaks with Stephen A. Smith

Posted on January 23, 2009 at 11:40 AM.

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With the season a little more than halfway complete, the Carolina Legends are 5-4 and 4th place in the OS North. It's been a season of ups and downs, but the feeling around the locker room is one of optimism. Following a loss to Djwlfpack's Gladiators, coach Pappy Knuckles banned media from the facility and refused to grant any interviews. Since then his team has avenged that loss and gone .500. In an exclusive interview with ESPN's Stephen A. Smith, Pappy finally answered some questions.

Smith: It's no secret that the Carolina Legends were a horrible team last season. You look like you're on pace to better your performance by several games this time around. Are you happy with the direction of the team?

Pappy: I'm never satisfied because I know that we can be better than we've played. We're at a crossroads right now and it's up to us to see how our story ends. If we can stay around .500 I think we can slide into the playoffs, but I'm hoping we can put together a few wins in a row to help our cause. Every time we win a game we turn around and lose the next one. The Trojans and Nightmares seem like they'll be battling it out for the first two spots. The Norsemen have won 5 straight and they're one of the hottest teams in the league. We have our work cut out for us.

Smith: What is the team doing well?

Pappy: We've done a good job of forcing turnovers and getting points from them. Last season we finished near the top in that category and we have the potential to do it again. Gale Sayers has been key for us. His contribution on special teams is a huge plus that we weren't anticipating. He started off kind of shaky, but he has stepped up to the challenge and become a leader on this team.

Smith: What do you think your team needs to improve?

Pappy: We give up a ton of yards through the air. Ronnie Lott and Kevin Lane have gotten their fair share of interceptions, but we're having a rough time against some of the better passing teams. We also need to get more out of Jim Harbaugh and our wide receivers. They've been a major disappointment so far. If we can get them to play a bit better we can become a very solid team.

Smith: Let's play a little word association. You say the first thing that comes to mind. First word, "cHuMps".

Pappy: I heard he's like 8 years old.

Smith: utexas

Pappy: "Who drafts 3 safeties?"

Smith: Trojan Man

Pappy: Opportunist. **** Jerry.

Smith: Djwlfpack

Pappy: Classic games, offensive-minded. Receivers everywhere.

Smith: There have been rumors that you may be leaving Carolina next season. Is there any truth to this?

Pappy: I don't think it's fair to my team to talk about this type of thing right now. I'll worry about my future once the season is complete.

Smith: I understand. Thanks for you time, coach.

Pappy: No problem. Where's Rachel Nichols homely looking *** at? When I find her I might let her give me some head if she's lucky. I tried to holler at Sage but she copped an attitude. Rachel looks lonely and I need to bust one.

Smith: Coach, we're still on the air.

Pappy: ****.

Legend Leaders
Gale Sayers - 917 yards rushing, 5 kick return TDS
Ronnie Lott - 48 tackles, 12 assists, 6 interceptions, 1 TD
Jack Youngblood - 10.5 sacks

Comments

# 1 DJ @ Jan 23

Lol at the Rachel Nichols stuff at the end. I bet she's a closet freak.

Our games are classic. Every single one has gone down to the last minute of the game. This game is probably accelerating my transformation from black-haired to gray.

Look out for me in Season 3; I've got a new team assembled that once I get the offense figured out, I'll be tough to beat. The defense is straight nasty.

# 2 RogueHominid @ Jan 24

OMFG--that's a great piece! Probably the funniest one done to date. I love the word association bit, and laughed out loud at the unintentional on-air stuff. "I need to bust one," lol. I agree about Nichols, though. That hair dye job is one of the worst I've ever seen and she utters ever sentence as though it were the final one in a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Sage steel is smoking hot. Every time she does Sports Center I find myself needing to take a bathroom break.