hepcat

Aside from turning the Panthers into perennial losers and unceremoniously jettisoning the best QB in franchise history? he just comes off as an arrogant narcissist who doesn’t fit the kind of person who should own a professional sports team in the Carolinas. A Pittsburgh personality rubs southern people the wrong way.

Is he though? I thought those rules were only for players and coaches. Jerry Richardson went like 10 years without giving a press conference.

Mr. Tepper, The optics of the press conference you gave after firing Matt Rhule were quite ugly. You were cagey with your responses, and contentious with reporters who had legitimate questions concerning the team's performance, personnel attrition, and failed construction projects. I think I speak for all fans when I say, that press conference was not what we needed right now. If you are not going to be transparent and amicable, giving a live press conference reflects poorly on you and the entire organization. I suggest issuing written statements in lieu of live press conferences going forward. That way you can have professional public relations people proofread your statement to make sure it says everything you want it to say, and avoids pissing off the fanbase more than we already are given the team's 18-35 record since you bought the team. Maybe after the team has some success under your ownership, a live press conference would be more appropriate. A simple suggestion for you going forward.

I don't think Rhule ever had a chance. He wasn't cut from the right kind of cloth to be an NFL head coach. Sean Payton gave a great interview on Colin Cowherd's show yesterday about the differences between being a college head coach and coaching in the pros. He mentioned in college, the responsibilities go way beyond just coaching football players. You have to talk to the parents of the players, you have to recruit, you have to deal with boosters. You're not really as much a football coach as you are a people manager. And maybe Matt Rhule is good at those things. But one thing is abundantly clear, he's not a good football coach. In the NFL, you have to be more of a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in your field. Whether that is offense, defense, quarterbacks, special teams, etc. Matt Rhule was not a SME in literally anything football related, and he was poor at identifying people who were. His job wasn't to manage the social media, the training room, or to put ping pong tables out. His job was to coach NFL football players on football related matters. He failed.

Personally I think Tepper should have forced Rhule to go down with the ship and fired him in December since I don't believe there's any hope for the season now or later. The staff is 80% Rhule guys so I don't know what will actually change now that he is gone. But I don't think letting Wilks have a shot as the interim head coach is at bleak as it appears. He has the respect of both former and current players and is well-liked in the organization. His defense might run actual NFL caliber gap alignments and cut out the "college crap" that Snow ran. He's not being set up for success being thrust into the captain's chair on a sinking ship, but there are many worse options for interim head coaches out there. All that said I think the only reason Tepper fired Rhule now was that the fanbase had had enough. The stadium was empty for the 49ers game because every fan knew it was going to be a blowout loss. Unless Tepper fired Rhule, the stadium was going to be empty. It's still going to be pretty empty, but at least there might be a few fans who show up with the hope that things get better now that Rhule is gone.

I don’t love hiring a guy like Dan Quinn either but I don’t think we can expect to jump up to Super Bowl contender right away with the next coach either. The team is a mess from the top down, all the way up to the owner. A guy like Quinn could be good to have for 3 years to steady the ship and at least bring the team back to the middle of the pack. It could be akin to what happened to the Rams with Jeff Fisher. He was a similar type of coach to Quinn and the Rams were at least flirting with a .500 record under him. Then you go get your real long term coach after the mess is cleaned up. I don’t know if this team is a good situation for a first time head coach in all honesty. Tepper is obviously an arrogant narcissist who is hard to work for. Anyone he gets is going to have to have enough of a spine to tell Tepper to back the f*ck off and have the credentials to back it up. Quinn could do that. He might not be the long term guy, but he could at least pull us out of the depths of hell. If that’s settling, it’s better than what we have now….

It all runs through Tepper and that’s the biggest problem. He’s clearly too involved. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. It’s a mess. It’s probably going to get worse before it gets better. These are bleak times to be a Panthers fan.

Oh great another thread about a topic talked about yesterday

They had some good years before the end of his tenure but I agree I’m not loving the Dan Quinn pick. He’s an improvement over Rhule but that’s not saying a lot. I’d like a young first time NFL head coach with plenty of NFL coaching experience who is actually ready to make the jump. Demeco Ryans is at the top of my list. Working under Kyle Shanahan is about as good as it gets coaching tree wise. He learned from one of the best head coaching machines ever Mike Shanahan.

Quinn will at least drag this franchise into the realm of competence. Rhule completely drove this franchise to the depths of hell. Guy was in over his head from Day 1

I like Ron as a man (that is more than I can say about Rhule or Tepper) but no he’s not a good head coach anymore.

Or if Dallas collapses. That’s his unicorn job

At least Richardson's teams would have a winning season once every 2-3 years....Tepper has taken this franchise to the basement of the NFL and he's doing a great job of making everyone hate him with his unwarranted arrogant attitude.

Does the stadium even need to host concerts? They've had some DISASTERS of events like that beer festival that was a total joke and they ran out of beer in like 20 minutes. How many concerts can even draw 70k people? The Spectrum Center hosts better concerts than the stadium would. Hell the whitewater center hosted some great concerts. He's taking credit for something that doesn't matter and no one asked for.

Turned out to be spot on. Tepper doesn't like how available information is these days.

There's lots of great music venues that Charlotte has had over the years. There was always music. I came up in the Charlotte music scene and the fact he bothered to even mention that as one of his "successes" shows how truly deranged that man is. I hope he sells the team. The city of Charlotte and the Carolinas at large have rejected him like a bad organ transplant and it's time for him to go. I can't stand how arrogant and foolish he is. He talks down to people despite the fact he's done literally nothing but be a huge source of failure.

lol thanks for bringing that up, he literally said that Charlotte didn't have music before he brought it to the city

while I agree with that specific instance, he's been an atrocious penalty machine all season aside from that

CJ Henderson is absolutely god awful....gave up a 3rd round pick for him.

Sounds good to me

Dude what

You speculated a lot, but some of this might be true. The media was vicious with him and for good reason.

Is Wilks up next?

I disagree. He's so confrontational. This was not the right type of person to own a team in the city of Charlotte or in the Carolinas.