It's A Big Deal: Delhomme is trying to play down tonight's exhibition opener against the Colts

CHARLOTTE -- This is not a big deal to Jake Delhomme.

The Carolina Panthers will open their preseason schedule tonight against the Indianapolis Colts at Bank of America Stadium, and Delhomme will be their starting quarterback. To him, it's just another exhibition opener.

At least, Delhomme -- who is pretty much a straight shooter when he talks about such matters -- has continually taken that stance with the media this week.

But it is a big deal, and it should be a big deal.

Delhomme hasn't played in a game since he trotted off the field in Atlanta last Sept. 23, holding his right arm, after he heard something pop in his elbow. He hasn't played in a game since he underwent Tommy John surgery last October, surgery that involves replacing the elbow ligament with a tendon from elsewhere in the body. He hasn't played in a game since Vinny Testaverde tried to come to the rescue and then retired again, since David Carr fizzled and was released, since the Panthers fell apart and missed the playoffs again last season.

Yes, it's a preseason game, and that inherently means it's not the biggest game ever.

But it represents another milestone in the comeback process. It represents the "best-case scenario" in what could have been a career-ending injury, or for sure a much-longer rehabilitation process.

That makes it a big deal to the doctors and trainers who knew the risks and timetables for a quarterback undergoing ulnar-collateral ligament reconstruction. That makes it a big deal to management and the coaching staff, which have built this season's plans on the notion that Delhomme will be their quarterback. That makes it a big deal to Delhomme's teammates, who consider him their leader. That makes it a big deal to Panthers fans, who came to appreciate Delhomme more the worse things got without him last season.

Maybe Delhomme is just being humble, because he is a humble guy. Maybe he has just done so many interviews at so many stages of the comeback that he doesn't want to be melodramatic about this milestone.

He acknowledges that he is comforted by the fact that the rehab has gone smoothly, without any significant setbacks. But he is also quick to point out that he has allowed the process to go at its proper pace all along. The bigger breakthroughs and milestones have already come and gone.

"It IS a nice relief," he said. "But to be honest with you, I have done a bunch of interviews and they are like, ‘Were you nervous to throw the ball or let it loose?' And I was like, ‘No, because I've had no setbacks.' I didn't try to rush it. When we started throwing, nobody was around. It wasn't like it was April and guys are working out or May and we have minicamp and I'm trying to push it. I didn't have to push it because nobody was there. So that worked in my favor. And we didn't have any setbacks. The arm felt too good. Your body knows when you feel something, and I didn't feel any pain anywhere. So that was nice."

Tonight's game? The excitement will come merely from playing again.

"I'm not looking at it any different than any other first preseason game," he said. "You like to go out there and be productive and see what happens. I don't have any clue how long I will play. I think so many guys who are coming back from an injury, they want to get out there. But I don't feel that way. I've been practicing.... I have no apprehension at all. I don't know if I'm being naive, but I don't feel that way at all."

Delhomme now traces his arm problems back to 2005, when the wear and tear of throwing started affecting him.

"I just started noticing it during the night," he said. "When I would sleep I would leave my arm straight at night. Waking up in the morning, washing my face, brushing my teeth, little things like that. We shot it up with cortisone late in the season before we played the Saints in Baton Rouge, and it was like total relief. It lasted through the rest of the season and through the playoffs and the Pro Bowl, and the offseason it didn't bother me because I wasn't throwing a whole lot. But in the '06 training camp, my forearm started bothering me. Everything was starting to. And then I started to have pain in the back of the elbow. That is when we had a bone spur, and things went from there."

The ligament finally popped on a pass in the flat to Brad Hoover, in the third game last season. Delhomme had been hit on the arm by John Abraham earlier in the game while throwing. But Delhomme said he sensed problems before the game.

"That week leading up to it, it just wasn't right," Delhomme said. "I remember vividly talking to my wife on a Friday afternoon, and she had to fly back from a funeral for my grandmother, and she said, ‘How was practice and how is the arm?' And I said ‘It was miserable this week. It was just miserable this week.' And then it went. Your body just tells you sometimes."

He isn't hearing such body language now.

"It doesn't hurt," he said. "I'm not just saying that. It feels great. It really, truly does feel great."

That's why he is able to treat tonight's preseason opener as just another preseason opener.

But it is a big deal, anyway. And it should be.

■ John Delong can be reached at jdelong@wsjournal.com.