Panthers’ Buckner Always Focused on Big Picture

Mamas, don’t let your babies get crushed by Brentson Buckner.

And in Columbus, Ga., they didn’t.

Buckner, a 310-pound defensive tackle for the Carolina Panthers, wasn’t allowed to play organized football as a youngster, because he was simply too big. He weighed 175 pounds in sixth grade.

“The first time I went to play, I was too heavy, and I cried because all my friends were playing,” Buckner said Wednesday. “I’ll never forget that day. Me and my father were sitting out in the front yard. He was trying to talk to me, and a guy pulled up in a car. He was a friend of my dad.”

It was Wallace Davis, who wound up being Buckner’s football coach at Carver High.

“[Davis] talked to me and told me one day people will regret, because one day I’ll be paid to play football,” he said.

Buckner’s father helped him keep his dream alive.

“The years I couldn’t play, you’d never know,” Buckner said. “Because I had a brand-new set of helmets, pads, cleats. We would go in the backyard in pads, blocking, tackling. I was playing football; I just didn’t play for a team.”

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Before leading the Patriots to their first Super Bowl victory two years ago, quarterback Tom Brady prepared for the game by dozing at his locker before kickoff. He said he might try it again Sunday.

A pregame nap just wouldn’t work for Patriot linebacker Tedy Bruschi.

“There are different mentalities among linebackers and quarterbacks,” Bruschi said. “As a linebacker, you can let the adrenaline flow and sort of let it take over you. You become animalistic. As a quarterback, if you get too excited and too ramped up, it can affect your game.”

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Bruschi, who is nursing a calf injury, resumed practicing Tuesday and said Wednesday he was feeling better every day. There was a sliver of doubt early in the week whether he would be ready to play Sunday. He seemed to erase that Wednesday.

“I plan to go out there today at practice and do some things,” he said. “I only expect improvement from this point out. Basically, what I’m trying to say is that I will be there.”

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Among the behind-the-scenes architects of New England’s success is Scott Pioli, the Patriot personnel executive who helped assemble one of the deepest teams in the league. Not many stars, but lots of sturdy players. That paid off in a big way this season when injuries took their toll and New England had to start more than 40 players.

“They have a keen understanding of what they’re trying to get done, the kind of player they’re trying to bring in,” backup linebacker Ted Johnson said of Pioli and his staff of scouts. “They usually go after flexible players, guys that are willing to take a step back, maybe try something different, try another position, maybe not suit up this week and let somebody else do it. So, that’s really what this team is about, and it seems to work with us.”

In keeping with that no-star-system approach, the Patriots planned to be introduced as a team Sunday -- just as they were before the Super Bowl two years ago -- rather than going through individual introductions.

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Former President George Bush, who lives in Houston and stopped by the media center Wednesday, will turn 80 this year and said in an interview with the NFL Network that he planned to sky-dive on his birthday, just as he did when he turned 75.

“It’s a free fall, but they’ll have a couple of Golden Knights right at my side in case something gets messed up, which it won’t,” said Bush, whose birthday is June 12. “You land right there in the field. That’s my final jump.

“Barbara, my wife, says, ‘One way or another, this will be your final jump.’ I say, ‘Phrase it a little differently, will you?’ ”

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Carolina receiver Steve Smith had an awkward moment driving around Houston this week when he got stuck in the exact-change lane at a tollbooth without the $1.25 to get through. A line of five or six cars formed behind him and someone started honking.

“They were a little mad,” he said, “and that Southern hospitality went out the window.”

He finally got the coins he needed, but he had to get out on the freeway and go from car to car to get change for a dollar.

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Both teams have played the no-respect card this season, but it seems this week the Panthers are using it more often. Then again, they’re the underdogs.

“They don’t expect us to be here,” safety Deon Grant said, referring to the national media. “I guess they feel that every game we’ve been winning has been lucky. We’ve been going on the road winning playoff games the whole playoffs, except for one game and that was the Dallas game.

“They still feel we don’t deserve to be here. They want Philly to be here instead. So, we’ve just got to really go out there and bring our ‘A’ game and show them that the real team is supposed to be in the Super Bowl, and that’s the Carolina Panthers.”

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Panther return man Rod Smart, who answered to the nickname “He Hate Me” in the XFL, doesn’t even feign modesty when discussing that marketing masterstroke.

Said Smart: “I’m a genius.”