Reading tweets from various beat writers today there seemed to be a common theme from training camp, Mike Goodson was holding onto a football for dear life. What started as a curiosity became a great example of how Ron Rivera is running this team, sending messages while keeping things as light hearted as possible. Bill Voth tweeted a series of posts that gave us the full story.
Today at practice Mike Goodson was sitting out as a precaution to nurse a minor foot injury. However, that didn't mean Goodson didn't have work to do. Head coach Ron Rivera handed Goodson a football and told him to hold onto it during practice, no matter what (an obvious allusion to his fumble problems in the 1st preseason game). If Goodson was able to hold onto the football for all of practice Coach Rivera would buy him dinner, if he failed then he would need to buy dinner for whoever was able to knock it out. Word quickly got to the players and DeAngelo Williams immediately put a bounty on Goodson's football, telling teammates he'd reward someone if they could get the ball from him. Steve Smith stepped up first, ultimately wrestling with Goodson on the ground (who went into the fetal position to protect the ball) before Smitty finally gave up and pulled his jersey over his head, like a hockey fight.
It seems that Goodie learnt his lesson because he held the football all practice long. When he asked Rivera about the dinner they agreed to, Rivera casually said that he would talk to Jerry Richardson and ask him for some Bojangles certificates.