RIP Carolina Panthers, 1995-2024 – SBNation.com

Two weeks into the common season is a time for overreactions. Broad, sweeping statements about who sucks, who’s elite — each on a macro stage about groups, and the micro with regards to gamers. Fact be informed, we nonetheless don’t know lots in regards to the 2024 NFL season, and but one factor feels inevitable, previous saving.

The Carolina Panthers.

It didn’t take a full house sport, and even half, or perhaps a quarter. The Panthers as followers knew them died way back. The eulogy didn’t are available sweeping prose, however as $1.80 seats offered on the secondary market by season ticket holders who couldn’t endure the group anymore. The Panthers are actually given as a lot time and a spotlight as a baby’s once-beloved toy they aged out of, tossed on a 50 cent desk at a yard sale. A reminder that all of us outgrow the issues we as soon as cherished once they now not carry us pleasure, and that each relationship, irrespective of how significant, will be pushed previous its restrict by neglect.

The group, like all NFL groups, strikes in ebbs and flows. The hovering pleasure of delivery with Kerry Collins, solely to see the Penn State man-toddler who determined to give up soccer after being caught making racist remarks. The bridge years of Steve Beuerlein, restoring religion (albeit briefly) earlier than it was whisked away as soon as extra, vanishing as rapidly as Chris Weinke’s hairline. A determined, flailing franchise, in 2003 followers lastly had one thing to really be happy with when Jake Delhomme arrived in Charlotte to show us all how one can actually love NFL soccer for the primary time.

Delhomme wasn’t excellent, removed from it. He’d lock onto his first learn, at instances he’d overlook Steve Smith sprinting alongside the sideline with 10 yards of daylight behind him. There have been no tight spirals, lofted by means of the air with a flick of the wrist, however quite 30 passes a sport of bizarre, off-axis throws that didn’t seem like they need to work, however one way or the other did. Nothing was fairly when it got here to Jake, however dammit if he didn’t drag everybody alongside to victory, kicking and screaming whether or not they appreciated it or not.

It was throughout this period “Maintain Pounding” was born. By no means has a phrase that sounds so hilarious in isolation meant a lot to a group, to a fanbase, to the ethos of what it meant to be a Panthers fan. It served each as inspiration by no means to give up on the sector, however way more importantly to indicate grit and willpower off of it. Legendary linebacker Sam Mills (serving at linebacker coach on the time) coined the phrase in 2004 forward of the Panthers’ first playoff sport in seven years. Mills was battling intestinal most cancers, identified shortly earlier than the season started — and it wasn’t lengthy after that outsider linebacker Mark Fields informed his teammates he’d be lacking the 2003 season after being identified with Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Mills stood within the Panthers locker room and begged the boys he coached to maintain preventing. To by no means give up so long as there was a shred of hope, as a result of he promised them he’d maintain pounding for so long as he presumably may. Mills saved pounding till the top, when he died surrounded by his household simply 14 months after his now-legendary speech.

Followers endured the ache of dropping the Tremendous Bowl that 12 months, however they by no means stopped pounding. At all times able to return the subsequent fall with a renewed sense of vigor and willpower. Hope ran everlasting that any 12 months might be our 12 months, as a result of Delhomme and the 2003 Panthers confirmed us it was potential. That period ran its course with out way more success. Two extra double-digit successful seasons and playoff runs, however no trophy to indicate for it.

It was now 2010, and it’s right here a lot of my story begins. That is once I started writing in regards to the Panthers over at Cat Scratch Reader, SB Nation’s Panthers weblog. It’s actually inconceivable to articulate how ugly that season was. It was got here throughout a rebuilding interval, not completely dissimilar to the one Carolina finds itself in now. Week after week we’d watch because the Panthers have been demolished in a cloud of Jimmy Clausen’s platinum blonde ineptitude. For the primary time in six years we had a fanbase that didn’t really feel prefer it may Maintain Pounding anymore. It was prepared to surrender the battle.

Throughout these darkish days I picked the nice out of each week, meager crumbs that they have been, writing a weekly Monday morning column with the categorical objective of attempting to select the nice out of no matter rubbish we endured the day earlier than. The Morning Morning Optimist remains to be alive on CSR, the torch being handed and “Maintain Pounding” nonetheless echoing by means of our fanbase.

Then Cam Newton occurred. A lightning strike of brilliance that captured the creativeness like nothing that got here earlier than him, or has since. A unicorn athlete who performed with reckless abandon, equally cherished by Panthers followers as a lot as he was reviled by the remainder of the league. Carolina had probably the most dynamic, most fun participant in all the NFL for the primary time within the historical past of the group, and it was a dream. The disgrace about desires is that they’re typically fleeting, and Newton’s period was far too quick. Accidents mounted, the roster aged round him, and the top consequence was an period that was far too temporary. Nonetheless, Newton’s mild shone brighter than anybody who proceeded him, and burnt out simply as quick.

After all, that is what was taking place on the sector. Off it was one other story for the Carolina Panthers. Whereas Newton was main one other playoff cost in 2017 a narrative emerged that proprietor Jerry Richardson, patriarch of the Panthers, sexually harassed ladies employed by the group. It was clear the group wanted to show the web page, to get new blood on the prime — and Richardson agreed to promote the group and transfer on.

The thrill for brand new possession was palpable. Somebody who may modernize the group’s soccer operations and cease treating it like a small, family-owned enterprise. Rumors swirled of Jay-Z shopping for the group, Jeff Bezos, a who’s-who of massive identify billionaires. Quickly it turned clear that every one roads have been resulting in David Tepper, a minority proprietor of the Steelers who appeared fantastic on first look, however scratch beneath the floor and it was far uglier. Sadly, I noticed these tea leaves taking form when Tepper was solely a finalist to purchase the group. I pleaded, a person screaming into the void of inevitability, that the group I cherished wouldn’t be bought by David Tepper — however to no avail.

Of all of the horrible traits an proprietor can have, pondering they’re a soccer genius tops the record. Being a minority proprietor of the Steelers had Tepper actually imagine he was one way or the other answerable for the success Pittsburgh had on the sector. It was his mission to realize the identical in Charlotte, and put his stamp on the group he’d simply purchased. Fact be informed, it’s right here the place issues bought truly painful as a Panthers far for the primary time in historical past. If 1995 to 2017 have been marked by typical fan frustration, 2018-present have been drenched inWen despair. So let’s simply run down Tepper’s best hits:

1. Fired Ron Rivera for a 5-7 begin to the season, predominantly so he may rent “his man”
2. Hand-picked Matt Rhule to be his first teaching rent and gave an unproven faculty coach management of an NFL roster
3. Oversaw Newton getting run out of city and changed him with a revolving door of ineptitude at quarterback
4. Churned by means of three head coaches in 5 years, when previous to Tepper the Panthers had had three head coaches in 19 YEARS.
5. Routinely known as his personal photographs on the draft, superseding the recommendation of his soccer employees

That’s simply the soccer facet of issues. It might take a complete different story to debate shady enterprise practices with the town of Rock Hill, South Carolina over a brand new apply facility, shifting coaching camp out of Spartanburg, the place it had been because the group’s inception, and strong-arming native authorities over stadium financing.

Now we’re closing in on the state of the Panthers proper now, and extra particularly Bryce Younger, who’s the brand new sizzling scapegoat for every part unsuitable with David Tepper’s dumpster hearth. Revisionist historical past has plagued Younger from the second he confirmed indicators of battle below Frank Reich, one other horrific teaching rent by Tepper.

Overlook that Younger was the lock No. 1 choose all 12 months lengthy, a 47-touchdown-throwing Heisman QB that thrived in Alabama’s professional fashion system throughout a time the place Nick Saban’s group was retooling itself. Main as much as the 2023 NFL Draft Younger was nonetheless everybody’s No. 1 choose, and on draft evening there have been no claims Carolina had made the unsuitable choose. Curiously this modified by Week 4 of the 2023 season, and out of the blue there have been 1000’s of social media geniuses who “knew he’d be rubbish.”

Did Younger, who had a soccer profession affected by successful, huge numbers, and excessive reward out of the blue attain the NFL and neglect how one can play soccer, or was he simply one other sufferer of a franchise that had turn into a black gap for expertise and potential?

I would like nothing greater than for Bryce Younger to succeed. Not for egocentric causes as a fan, or the actual fact it makes life simpler — however that by all accounts he’s only a very nice man. Younger doesn’t have Clausen’s entitlement points, or any off-field cause to dislike him. He didn’t requested to be born smaller than most NFL quarterbacks, and lord is aware of he didn’t ask to be drafted by the Panthers.

At this level I don’t know if he will be redeemed. Bryce might need at all times been small, but it surely wasn’t till this 12 months that he began taking part in small. Somebody had occurred on this newest shift to yet one more head coach in Dave Canales that has Younger uncomfortable within the pocket, soar passing when he doesn’t must, lacking passes the threaded with ease a 12 months in the past, and customarily trying unhealthy. His mechanics have gone to shit, the Panthers could be the worst group we’ve seen in over a decade, and there’s no hope on the horizon.

Greater than all that: The center has been ripped from the fanbase. “Maintain Pounding” is gone, present solely as a advertising slogan printed on a jersey collar. It’s one factor to ask followers to push by means of adversity, however when that adversity has lasted Tepper’s whole possession reign it’s dragged them down and damaged them. When a house opener is a cacophony of boos, low cost offered tickets, and a sea of justified frustration two weeks into the season it’s an indication that individuals have checked out. No one talks in regards to the Panthers day-to-day anymore. They’re merely a identified, accepted disappointment all of us endure, the problematic member of the family we nonetheless love, however comprehend it’s simply not wholesome to be round anymore.

Hope used to spring everlasting in these elements. Ardour ran over. Individuals have been engaged, and speaking. Discussing wanted roster enhancements, guys have been we proud of, hashing out future adjustments that might get the Panthers over the hump.

Now it’s been changed with apathy. The one emotion you’ll hear is anger directed at David Tepper for taking our jewel and smashing it together with his ego and ineptitude. There’s no mild on the finish of the tunnel. Seemingly no manner out for years. An NFL group will nonetheless exist in Charlotte, taking the sector each fall Sunday — and certain, in time they may truly win once more.

The Panthers as we knew them? They’re gone, and by no means coming again. A weekly reminder that no quantity of consideration, or love, or care can cease idiots in energy from ruining one thing you really liked a lot. The 2024 season was presupposed to be the thirtieth anniversary of the Carolina Panthers, however they didn’t dwell lengthy sufficient to see their birthday, not likely.

Relaxation in peace, Carolina Panthers. You have been as soon as lovely, and also you have been ours. Now we don’t acknowledge you anymore.

Explanation for demise: David Tepper.