By Mike Cranston
Associated Press
CHARLOTTE ó Carolina Panthers safety Terrence Holt was preparing to attend a bowling event last week. The dilemma was, should his more famous brother tag along?
Torry Holt, the St. Louis Rams receiver and seven-time Pro Bowl pick, was in Charlotte visiting not long after he created a stir when he indicated he’d love to one day follow his brother and become a Panther.
Bad thoughts kept creeping into Terrence’s head as he got closer to putting on his colorful bowling shoes.
“I thought with all the uproar and everything that happened it would look too suspicious,” Holt said Tuesday. “Someone could have superimposed a Panthers shirt on him. We thought that might be a bit too much.”
Torry stayed stashed away as Terrence went bowling. It doesn’t mean the Holts aren’t still thinking about a reunion in their home state.
“I think that would be the ultimate,” Terrence Holt said after Carolina’s optional workout. “I think that would be the capper on our careers, or his career, since he’s older than me.”
The 28-year-old Gibsonville native and former North Carolina State star signed a one-year deal with the Panthers in March after being released by Arizona. A former starter with the Cardinals and Detroit Lions, Holt is contending with rookie Charles Godfrey for Carolina’s free safety job.
Soon after, Torry Holt appeared at a celebrity golf tournament and told reporters he wished he could join his brother back home.
Torry Holt, one of the final holdovers from the Rams’ “Greatest Show on Turf” Super Bowl-winning team, turns 32 on Thursday. He has 805 career receptions and two years left on a seven-year, $42 million contract. At the Rams’ minicamp last month, he said he plans to finish out his contract and then consider his options.
“I don’t think he said anything that was too out of bounds or too bad on St. Louis or disrespected their management or their team,” Terrence Holt said. “I think he was just being honest. We as players get sometimes looked at badly for being honest. But this is a brutally honest league. When teams make decisions about you as a player and they cut you, nothing is said about that. It was just the right move to make.
“I think he just said something that he felt passionate about ó that he has two years left and after that he’s going to see where he can land, or if they don’t re-sign him, see if he can get back here to Carolina.”
Terrence Holt has some work to do to stick with the Panthers. He was the front-runner for the starting job until Carolina took Godfrey in the third-round of the draft. Still stinging from being released by Arizona a year after signing a five-year, $15 million deal, Holt isn’t conceding the job to Godfrey, even though the rookie has been working with the first team this week.
Holt reminded reporters he was supposed to lose his starting position in Detroit in 2006 to second-round pick Daniel Bullocks. Holt kept the job.
“I’m just trying to make it hard on the coaches, to make that decision tough,” Holt said. “Hopefully I can put myself in the best position to be out there on Sundays.”
But talk of a Holt hookup in Carolina won’t go away. They were teammates for one season at N.C. State in 1998, but the younger Holt was being redshirted and they never played together in a game.
Terrence Holt said it would be a “dream” to play with his brother, but they’re taking no chances in public.
“When anyone catches him here in Charlotte just hanging out with me, there’s going to be something said about that,” Terrence Holt said. “I think he’s happy where he’s at in St. Louis with his contract. But he obviously wants to win, and if they don’t re-sign him in a couple of years, we’ll see what happens.”
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NOTES: WR D.J. Hackett (knee swelling) missed his second straight workout. … QB Jake Delhomme continued to throw with the starters as he recovers from elbow surgery. … OT Jeff Otah practiced for a second straight day after missing the first three workouts and last month’s minicamp with a lingering ankle injury. … DE Julius Peppers, coming off his worst season as a pro and entering the final year of his contract, again declined an interview request.