Matt Rhule is gone, but the Panthers’ problems are not

The Panthers became the first team in 2022 to fire its head coach by axing Matt Rhule after a 1-4 start, and almost three years of desperate floundering under his leadership. It would be nice to hang a “Mission Accomplished” banner, dust off your hands and say “now they just have to rebuild,” but far more is rotten in Carolina than one terrible coach.

Team owner David Tepper, the billionaire hedge fund manager and wealthiest owner in the NFL, is desperate to make his mark on the league by trying to reshape the organization in his image. This desire to do things differently led to one of the worst decisions in team history, when he hired Rhule to a seven-year contract, gave him full roster control, and built a multi-million dollar analytics department for a coach who won him 11 games in 2.5 seasons.

It would have been okay to admit he messed up. It was an opportunity to be genuine, and real. Offering up a mea culpa and simply say “I tried to do too much, too fast, and it was the wrong decision.” Instead he decided to look back, almost blaming the regime before him.

This, unsurprisingly, isn’t being received well. Tepper has not earned the right to criticize the culture of the team, one he was never a part of — and that’s true regardless of whether he threw down a bag to buy the team or not. Fans were living it, enduring it, back when he was throwing breast implants around his boardroom for fun, and scavenging off the corpses of dying companies which made him billions. On one level, sure, he’s correct — the team has not had back-to-back winning seasons since its inception in 1995, but it’s rich coming from Tepper, whose decisions absolutely led to back-to-back-to-back losing seasons.

I would pay damn good money to see Tepper stand face-to-face with Steve Smith and tell him that there was no winning culture when Smitty was an All-Pro and a team captain.

Every fan was frustrated by the lack of consistency, and the organizational inability to build off success, but you know what? At least the Panthers had a soul. I don’t know if you can say that now. At least the on-again-off-again success made you feel something — now the team is a lifeless, hollow shell that isn’t worth emotion.

Apparently, in Tepper’s world, he brought music to Charlotte, and in 2.5 years has “revitalized” the city ... who knew?

This is so weird, because I swear I remember seeing The Smashing Pumpkins play at The Fillmore in 2010. I also thought I saw Joywave there too. I also distinctly remember seeing Nine Inch Nails, Jane’s Addiction and Tom Morello at the PNC Music Pavilion. I must be wrong, because there was no music in Charlotte until David Tepper.

The city was silent. “Can we have some music?” the people cried, wishing for tone and rhythm to brighten their lives, but it was always met with the same reply: “No, peasants. No music until a hedge fund manager is able to bring boomer acts like Elton John to Bank of America Stadium.”

It’s not what Tepper is saying, it’s the hubris with which he’s so insistent he’s been God’s gift to Charlotte, and the Carolinas. Sure, there’s the MLS team, we’re enjoying it — but also, dude, the team sucks. You keep trying to fleece Charlotte taxpayers to fund a new stadium. Meanwhile the town of Rock Hill, South Carolina (essentially a suburb of Charlotte) is dealing with a financial mess because Tepper pulled out of building the Panthers’ practice facility over gripes over tax funding. He since liquidated his construction companies, which will likely mean taxpayers will have to absorb the $100M debacle, rather than the man with a $18.5B net worth who started it.

You know what I think of when I think of the Carolina Panthers of old? Joy and tenacity. It’s not the playoff seasons, or the Super Bowl appearances. It’s Cam Newton ensuring every kid at training camp got his autograph. It’s Ryan Kalil and Jordan Gross riding ludicrous tricked-out golf carts with beefed-up suspension to ensure it could hold two offensive linemen. It’s Steve Smith asking around to find out who the new reporters on the Panthers beat were, explicitly so he could haze them by giving horrible answers in interviews and making them “earn” his time. It’s fans screaming “LUUUUUUKE!” from the nosebleeds whenever a white linebacker made a tackle, because from the cheap seats it was a safe bet Luke Kuechly was the one who made the play, then laughing in unison realizing it was someone else.

More than anything else I think of Keep Pounding. The legacy Sam Mills began as linebackers coach when he was diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 2003, and told he had months to live. Mills could have stepped away, but he wanted to keep coaching. He’d get chemotherapy in the morning, and head to the stadium right after. He told the players to Keep Pounding, to never stop fighting, and it pushed the team to the Super Bowl. It didn’t matter than they lost to the Patriots, not really — football was secondary to the message, one which still endures, years after Mills’ death. A legacy which can never be forgotten.

That’s the culture of the Carolina Panthers. Or, at least it was. I’m not sure whether the team can claim that history anymore. Under Tepper’s watch it’s about maximizing profits, pressuring local government for a new stadium, hurting the community with big promises that aren’t delivered on, all while acting like you’ve done the people a favor and they should worship at your altar.

Matt Rhule is gone, but the Panthers’ problems are not. It’s an impossible situation, because every fan wants the Carolina Panthers to win, to become a successful top-tier organization — and maybe it’s pettiness, but I don’t want this man to be the one to do it. I don’t want him to have the satisfaction. If Tepper is willing to act like he “revitalized” Charlotte, then how insufferable would he be if this team actually became a perennial contender?

I might be in the minority, but I’ll take a lovable loser that made you feel good about supporting the team over whatever the hell this madness is now.