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The scar, starting to fade after 10 months, is about 4 inches in length, running along the inside of his elbow and just out of quarterback Jake Delhomme's view.
“I can't see it very well,” Delhomme says, raising his right arm in front of him and bending it at the elbow. “It's not a bad scar at all.”
The healing the scar conceals, however, is a very real reminder of how important Delhomme's apparently successful offseason elbow surgery is to the Panthers' hopes of success this season.
It's a pressure Delhomme downplays.
“Yes, the quarterback is a central position,” he concedes. “We all know that. But I truly believe one guy isn't greater than the team.”
The players Delhomme will likely throw to the most – Steve Smith and Muhsin Muhammad – say Delhomme's arm is as strong as ever. The reconstructed elbow – fixed in October by what's commonly known as Tommy John surgery – was put on full display on the Panthers' first offensive play in an exhibition against Washington.
Delhomme threw a deep pass – probably about 50 yards in the air – that Smith couldn't catch up to.
To Delhomme, it was just another pass. And he felt nothing in his elbow.
“It never crossed my mind,” he said.
