news-record.com

CHARLOTTE -- Jon Beason got a text message Tuesday afternoon that changed his life. It came from Steve Smith.

DeAngelo Williams got a package in the mail Wednesday afternoon that changed his day. It came from LenDale White.

This might be the best week of the season for the Carolina Panthers, the week that could change everything. Sunday night's game against the New York Giants is the biggest game of the year in the NFC, maybe the biggest in the entire league, and the Panthers have decided they like the attention.

Williams was handed a package in the locker room after practice, and it contained a present from White, the Tennessee Titans running back. A note was attached wishing Williams and fellow Panthers running back Jonathan Stewart "good luck the rest of the way."

"It's signed by LenDale," Williams said laughing as he pulled a blue T-shirt from the package and revealed it for everyone to see.

On it was a likeness of White and fellow Titans running back Chris Johnson, the tandem dubbed "Smash and Dash" by someone, possibly the tandem itself. White sent it as a joke and a jab at Williams and fellow Panthers running back Stewart, who started calling themselves the same thing at some point this season.

A crowd gathered as Williams showed off the shirt and hammed for the cameras on a day when the cameras ran nonstop in the locker room of the loosest football team you could possibly imagine. A team that's about to play its most important game in three years has reached a point few teams reach in one or any season: The Panthers are good, and they know it.

Nearby, Beason was talking about how he found out he'd be going to Hawaii in the offseason.

"I got a text from Steve Smith about 1 o'clock," he said. "It said, 'What's up, Pro Bowler?' "

Beason was one of four Panthers named to the Pro Bowl. Smith, Julius Peppers and tackle Jordan Gross were the others. Gross said when he got word about the honor, he thought someone was playing a joke on him. Beason said he knew it was no joke.

"I called my mom," he said.

Carolina will play the New York Giants on national television Sunday night with everything from the NFC South Division title to home-field advantage for the entire NFC playoffs at stake. Already, the national media has begun to converge on the team, which has been playing in huge games now for about a month. That's one reason the Panthers are so loose heading into their biggest game yet.

Two weeks ago, the Monday night game against Tampa Bay was given similar accord. Gross said this one seems like an extension of that game.

"Two weeks ago we were in the same situation with the Bucs," he said. "We responded really well to that, and last week (a 30-10 victory over Denver) felt like a really big game, too. So this won't catch us off guard. We know how to prepare for a game like this. Hopefully, well just do what we've been doing the last few weeks."

That would be winning, for the most part, and gaining confidence with each win. But more importantly, Gross said, the Panthers are becoming the team they thought they'd be all along, a team they thought would roll out of training camp and into the season playing just like it's playing now.

"The fact is we've just gotten our team back together," he said. "After all the injuries and things, we've solidified our (offensive) line and everything has come together around it."

The defense will send two players to the Pro Bowl and probably should've had cornerback Chris Gamble on the list, too. T

he offense will send two, and certainly should've included Williams, who has been named an alternate, and fullback Brad Hoover, who attracted a crowd himself Wednesday as he talked about his high school days playing for tiny Ledford, a school that also produced Madison Hedgecock, the Giants' fullback and a former North Carolina standout.

"And an LPGA golfer," Hoover said laughing. "Marcy Newton played on the boys' golf team as the No. 2 player, and she would wear out those guys."

Everyone was laughing Wednesday as the Panthers finished their first day of practice and got ready for the Giants and all that comes later. Smith was telling reporters he wasn't talking on record unless he could do it nude, and Williams was walking around the locker room showing off his new shirt, Fox and quarterback Jake Delhomme were on teleconference calls with the New York media and the whole franchise rollicked merrily toward a game that could define a season and possibly a whole lot more.

Fox said he enjoyed the pressure of playing big games, and he thought his team did, too. This time last year, Carolina was 6-8 and about to be 6-9. The pressure then was about careers. They were all coaching and playing for their jobs.

Fox said nothing could put more pressure on him and the team than the pressure it puts on itself. And besides, the coach said, it's kind of fun.

"It's exciting," he said. "And it beats the alternative."

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin @news-record.com