Beason's Pro Bowl snub will keep him from playing in front of home crowd

CHARLOTTE -- Panthers linebacker Jon Beason was among the notable Pro Bowl snubs last week. He never came out to talk about it, but not making the game clearly galls him, considering it's being played on his home turf. The South Florida native, who played at the University of Miami, was excited about the chance to make the all-star game in his hometown.

Instead, the honor went to Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma, also an alum of “The U.”

“Everybody can't go, but with his numbers, what he did this year, (Beason) should have been one of those guys,” said defensive tackle Damione Lewis, a college teammate of Vilma.

According to the league's game-day stats (teams keep their own by coaches grading tape), Beason had 134 tackles through 15 games, second in the league behind only Patrick Willis of San Francisco, the other NFC honoree. Vilma had 110, which was 16th in the league.

Beason had 3 sacks to Vilma's 2, along with the only forced fumble of the pair. Both had three interceptions. Vilma had the advantage of playing for the Saints, who started the season 13-0.

“Fans, players and coaches, I guess their opinion is different than mine,” Lewis said of Beason. “He played an awesome season. You look at him and Willis, their stats are almost identical.

“He did the work to be there. … You can't get hung up on it. Yeah it's disappointing, but people see and people know what he's done. That doesn't mean you can't have next year.”

Click here to order Jon Beason’s proCane Rookie Card.



(heraldonline.com)