Why adult 'kids' love this game

SAN DIEGO -- There's a reason we buy tickets and jerseys, fight traffic and concession lines and give a team our money and our allegiance.

You saw that reason at Qualcomm Stadium on a blindingly sunny Sunday afternoon.

The Carolina Panthers flew across the country to a play a team that has as many stars and as much talent as anybody in the NFL. The San Diego

Chargers had lost one home game the past two seasons combined. The don't give up yards, they don't give up points and they certainly don't give up victories.

Yet the Panthers, the 9 1/2-point underdog Panthers, outplayed them most of the afternoon. The home crowd, which had loved their team wholeheartedly before kickoff, booed them by the end of the first half. Late in the third quarter, they even booed the Chargers for handing the ball to LaDainian Tomlinson, the best running back in the league and one of the best of all time.

The Panthers led 19-10 early in the fourth quarter. Then the Chargers began to play the way they were supposed to, scoring two touchdowns, the last of them with 2:29 remaining for a 24-19 lead.

So the only way Carolina would win is to drive 68 yards for a touchdown. They had 2:27 to do it, and they had one timeout.

They moved down the field in small steps, never gaining as many as 15 yards. The only voice in the huddle belonged to quarterback Jake Delhomme.

Delhomme, 33, hurt his elbow badly last season and did not play after the third game. He underwent major surgery. This game was the first in his comeback.

Jake is one of those guys who wake up excited. The alarm went off. Hooray!

But in the huddle there was calm about him. He didn't that he had to win this game: He felt he gets to.

"We play a kids' game," Delhomme says. "Opening day, the crowd, the weather, the national anthem, the flyover. I was thinking to myself about the people in the stands, and how lucky we are.

"I appreciate it. We don't know how long it will last. Every game could be the last. So just enjoy the heck out of it."

Delhomme drove the Panthers to the San Diego 20. But only 11 seconds remained on the clock. After an incompletion, only six seconds did. Coach John Fox had wisely saved his last timeout, and decided to run two plays.

The first was a slant to Muhsin Muhammad for six yards. Muhammad immediately called the timeout.

The ball was on the 14; two seconds remained. The longest play of the drive had been 13 yards.

"Jake is an amazing quarterback," says tackle Jordan Gross. "I thought we had a chance."

The play sent in from the sideline was "Five Verticals." The name changes, but anybody who has ever dropped back to pass has called it. The premise is simple: Go to the end zone and get open.

On three.

Delhomme dropped back, hung in the pocket, hung in the pocket and pump-faked as if he were going to throw.

On the sideline, most of the defensive players sat with their heads down, afraid to look. Cornerback Ken Lucas stood on the sideline, not willing to miss anything. He believed.

Delhomme made eye contact with tight end Dante Rosario, 6 feet 4 and 23 years old. The quarterback threw hard over the middle. A linebacker got his finger on the ball but Rosario made the catch.

Touchdown Panthers, game over, Carolina wins 26-24.

Fox danced across the field behind dark sunglasses. Players engulfed Rosario next to the blue padding behind the goal post, the receiver's eye-black mixing with his sweat and running down his face.

Rookie safety Charles Godfrey didn't know what to do.

"I've never been part of anything like this," he said.

How will you describe your first game to your friends?

"It's everything that we thought it would be when we were kids," Godfrey said. "You look at the NFL on TV, and it looks like so much fun. And it's everything that you dreamed about."

No matter who you are.