Cortland Finnegan on Panthers & Rams

On brink of retirement, ex-Ram Finnegan gets Carolina call

Jim Thomas

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SAN FRANCISCO • Just when it looked like his career was over, former Rams cornerback Cortland Finnegan was signed by the Carolina Panthers in late November.

Just like that, Finnegan finds himself in the Super Bowl at age 32.

“It’s an amazing story,” Finnegan said, recalling the circumstances. “I had a bunch of guys at the house, all my high school buddies. We had a weekend (planned), just came up and we hung out in Nashville.”

And then the Panthers called. They needed help after Charles “Peanut” Tillman went down with a knee injury, and Finnegan has since filled in as the team’s nickel back.

He came in for a workout the day after Thanksgiving and was signed the following Monday. At the time, it had been nearly a year since Finnegan played football — for the Miami Dolphins in December 2014.

He was in career limbo when the Panthers called 11 months later, somewhere near retirement but not totally removed from giving it another shot.

“I hadn’t lost any sleep either way, to be honest with you,” Finnegan told the Post-Dispatch. “I was just playing basketball. A ton of basketball, and that was about it.”

But Finnegan had yet to turn in his NFL retirement papers. Enter the Panthers.

In nine previous years of football, including eight with coach Jeff Fisher in St. Louis and Tennessee, Finnegan has been involved in the playoffs only twice. Both postseason games were Titans losses, in the 2007 and 2008 seasons. So it’s been a long dry spell.

“I really didn’t have anything that we were playing for,” Finnegan said of those lean years. “We weren’t going to the playoffs. We didn’t have a good quarterback. You know, we didn’t have a stable quarterback.

“So to have all those things, the foundation that Carolina had, the playmakers that they had, the coaching that they had — it made it so easy. Accountability is everything here.”

In 2012, Finnegan was signed away from Tennessee in free agency as part of Fisher’s first Rams squad. With a five-year, $50 million deal that included $27 million in guaranteed money, he was to be a defensive cornerstone.

After a promising 2012 campaign, one that included three early-season interceptions, the wheels fell off for Finnegan in 2013. Injuries limited him to seven games, he struggled in coverage, and was released the following offseason.

“I think there were more working parts than just being beat up,” Finnegan said of his time in St. Louis. “This isn’t the time nor the place (to discuss) that. No one will ever know why stuff happened the way it did, and we won’t even get into details.”

He declined to elaborate.

Of all his former Rams teammates, Finnegan said he missed linebacker James Laurinaitis the most, and still talks with him a lot.

“I love James,” Finnegan said. “Great deal of respect for James and Chris Long. Those two guys, you wish that they would have the opportunity to make the playoffs, let alone be in this game. I know they’re at that point where it’s like, ‘Man, I just want to be a part of something that’s big.’ ”

During his time in St. Louis, Finnegan actually attached a Laurinaitis bobblehead to the front of his car — as a hood ornament. It was a joking yet sincere sign of appreciation.

“Man, what a great guy,” Finnegan said. “He just embodies what an NFL player’s about, a dad’s about, a husband’s about.”

Talking to Finnegan can sometimes bring the unexpected, and Finnegan was true to form near the end of Carolina’s media session Thursday.

When asked if he was surprised about the Rams’ relocation to Los Angeles, Finnegan replied: “Not surprised. I knew it was coming two, three years ago. They had already said it was gonna happen. We knew.”

Finnegan said the “they” he was referring to was Fisher.

“He said that two or three years ago,” Finnegan said. “I think that’s the reason he stuck with it because he knew. Because they knew they were gonna make that transition (to Los Angeles).”