Ok here is why people don't respect the panthers

[Fireball77]

So if they went by most of your points the Falcons and Saints shouldn't be on the list either. That's where the pretty passing game you mentioned kicks in to their thoughts.

[GRWatcher]

I don't particuraly care what 100% of the pundits say. But reading them can be interesting and fun and something to do in the meantime. I only care about what happens on the field each week. :thumbsup:

[Gman was right]

I think the problem is that the fans have this delusion that we are one of the overall elite franchises in the league like the cowboys, steelers, packers, redskins, patriots....etc etc. No one is disrespecting the panthers. There are about 20 other teams in the NFL that ESPN never talks about either and I guarantee none of those fan bases whine as much about respect like our fans do. We havent been around long enough or done anything consistently to be considered elite. When or if that happens then people will talk about this team consistently as one of the elite. We havent even had back to back winning seasons yet. What do you expect? People are talking about the Falcons now because they went 11-5 under a rookie HC and QB. John Fox has been here 7 years and the team is still inconsistent and Jake is a 34 has been who was never more than average to begin with. Thats also why people never talk about the panthers as being elite. They've never had a franchise QB.

[outlaw4]

1. We're a young franchise. This is a huge reason itself so we automatically are at a disadvantage. A lot of teams have traditions of which predate our existence for years and years that they've more or less sustained that contribute to their heritage. What do you think the Steelers are known for? (Defense). The Cowboys? (America's Team--bleh). The Giants? (running game). The Panthers? (uhh....)

Agree with this point. We simply don't have the legions of fans spanning generations like we do. That's going to take a LOT of time.

2. We are consistently inconsistent. We haven't established ourselves as contenders. We have not made the playoffs two years in a row, nor have we won a playoff game in the last 3 years. Notice almost all contenders have sustained success. The Steelers, the Titans, the Giants, etc. Other respected teams have somewhat lower levels of consistency, but they are still better than ours.

Disagree. If that was the case, why are the Cowgirls continually chosen to go deep in the playoffs every year despite not getting past the first game in over a decade? The Saints can't even get to the playoffs and they keep getting picked to represent our division. The Colts kept having great regular seasons only to falter in the playoffs every year. This isn't like other sports where the same teams are in the playoffs every single year.

3. We are not synonymous with the word "contender". Ask any random fan to name a contender in the NFC and they're most likely to say "eagles" or "giants" more than anything else.

Disagree because a fan's definition of contender is much different than one of a unbiased analyst. In many cases, talent is defined as "Do I know this player because he yaps his mouth all the time, puts up gaudy stats, is on ET Tonight, gets in trouble, etc.) The only reason why people know D'Will is because he brought them to many a football fantasy championships.

4. We're allergic to success. Every time the Panthers are proclaimed a good team they follow up with a characteristically bad performance. Plenty of media outlets like to go with a safe pick so they can look like they know what they are talking about, and the Panthers are far from a safe pick. For example, even when all indications point to success, the Panthers far from live up to the forecast. The playoff game last January. It was the perfect matchup for us. Nobody respected Arizona. They'd been awful on the road on the east coast the whole year, we'd been 8-0 at home. The running game was absolutely on fire. Delhomme was firing some good throws up until then. The defense was a little suspect, but one could expect the Panthers to pull through a shootout, especially since we beat them in close scoring earlier in the season. The result? An absolute piss poor performance. The offensive line couldn't handle the undersized Cardinals defensive front four. Delhomme threw into coverage constantly, as the receivers were blanketed a lot. Warner sat back and fired to the open man. Fitzgerald had about 150 of his 166 yards by halftime. The Panthers almost seemed like they didn't want it. The worst part was, we were the only team they blew out. The Falcons came within 6, the Eagles took them into overtime, and the Steelers beat them. While other teams are expected to go, say 9-7 at the worst this year, nobody has an indication if we'll be 11-5 or 4-12.

Agree to a point. We do tend to be streaky with our performance but then again, the media rarely pays attention even when we do well. It's only when we're on Monday night or facing one of the "in" team that we get attention. We could be 9-3 in November and still not get a mention!

5. So many question marks surround us. The most important considered by the bulk of the media, QB. Nobody here knows for sure if Delhomme will perform well this year or fail miserably. 99% of the people who are sure he will continue a high level of play probably wear jerseys adorned with Panther graphics. The rest of the football world is skeptical. His projection is unpredictable. Second on the list is the Defense. the unit finished 18th overall last year, giving up 30+ points in each of the last 3 games, the only significant addition has been a 2nd round DE, and we're already missing our interior space-eater for the whole season. The running game is the only dimension people are respecting.

Agree to a point. Question marks are just that, questions. There are always teams with question marks that find a way to surprise analysts and do well while some "safe" picks blow up in everyone's faces.

6. Our standards are low compared to better teams. To us, a single 12-4 2008 record is enough to toss us into the top 5. It didn't matter we got manhandled in the playoffs, it didn't matter the previous 2 years we've played like a pile of poo, it's convenient for us to single out the group of games we seemed to be on the ball and draw a conclusion that we're hustlers. Such conclusion is erroneous and premature. Other critics aren't looking at our 12-4, but more how we played down the stretch, which was awful. A 9-6-1 Eagles team didn't have such a lustrous regular season, but won on the road twice in the playoffs. I hate to break the news to all you humble southern folk, but other football fans as well as the mass media expect...a little...more.

Disagree for now. They don't expect anything from us. If they were, we should be projected to do better than the Saints, which in many cases, were not. The only time they've expected good thing from us from the beginning was 2006 when we were on the SI cover.

Frankly, I don't give a damn about "power rankings" or what "analysts" think about our team. It's like the hypothetical in which we're the Super Bowl champs and they call us the "Worst Super Bowl Champions in History". Guess what? That still doesn't change the fact we're the champions.

[2jakefansinva]

Why then, should we keep a coach, he participates in that inconsistency.

Just asking.

oh, wait, best coach we've ever had, check.

Too this point, yes.

[jasonluckydog]

Thats alot of reading when I take a dump tonight I will take my laptop with me to finish reading it.

[2plankingpanther]

I like the Panthers being under the radar and direspected!

[joemac]

Meh, I think the biggest reason that we are being looked over this season is simply the terrible playoff game we had last season. Jakes performance is all anyone in the media can talk about. I still think that top to bottom we have one of the top 5 most talented rosters in the NFL, and one of the top 5 coaches.

Those fags in the media can say what they want to say....it really doesnt matter much to me lately. If I got my feelings hurt everytime someone bad mouthed my team I would have committed suicide by now.

[Udogg]

Nice, I would add the stadium atomosphere being one of the worst in the league.

Yeah we have a pretty sucky atmosphere , but it was a lot better last year than the year before. I think if we could gain a little consistency on the field in could lead to some consistency from the fans.

[Mr. Scot]

Actually, the reasons are a lot simpler than this discussion.

You could have stopped the original post with this:

I was reading the daily news...

That pretty much tells the story right there.

Local sports writers can tell you pretty much anything you need to know about the teams they cover. Branch out to discuss the rest of the league though, and the pool of knowledge dries up quite a bit.

(and I'm including our own local guys when I say that)

So why is it this way? Honestly, it's not their job to know everything about every team. It takes enough time to get in-depth info on the home team. Thus, when it comes to covering the rest of the league, they'll generally just rely on what they've seen in national columns or what they know about team's reputations from prior years.

This is why when you look at a lot of guys predictions for how teams will finish, it tends to remind you a lot of last year's final standings (with a few adjustments).

Relying on national coverage guys? Sadly, that's a crap shoot too. Most of them concentrate on teams in major cities or on established stars. Some of them probably couldn't name more than a few starters on the Panthers or any other small market team (Peter King is notorious for this).

So are there guys I listen to and trust? Sure, but they're few, very few. Others (arguably a majority) know only the big stories or the most basic info. If it didn't make headlines, they probably don't know it.

To be fair, covering the entire league is a pretty big job. Even so, there are plenty of guys who I honestly think just don't have enough work ethic to really dig very much.

Reality: No one knows jack about who's going to be good this year, or who's going to be bad. As mentioned before, most guys will just fall back on how everyone looked at the end of the year last year, with an adjustment or two made based on free agent moves. Very few guys have the imagination to see things any differently. They just go on what they think they know.

There'll be over a hundred Super Bowl predictions made in national media this year. Bookmark them and look back at year's end, and if as many as two or three of them are correct, it'll be a good year for the media.

[Mr. Scot]

To follow up on the thought here, what do I think about the disrespect the Panthers are getting?

I honestly don't care.

People think they know how good or bad the team is based largely on the end of last season and this year's preseason. In reality though, both of those things don't tell us jack. At this point, nobody in the media has any more of a clue than the fans do. That's just basic reality.

I have no idea how good the Panthers will be this year. Maybe they'll be great. Maybe they'll stink. There's any of a hundred factors on which the whole story could turn, and nobody here can predict them.

Still, some will try. Me? Since I'm not paid to speculate, I don't see much point. Nor do I see much point in wringing our hands over disrespect, whether it's real or perceived.

If the team is great, it'll all be irrelevant and we can revel in how wrong it was.

If the team sucks, it'll all be deserved and we won't have much of anything to say in response.

But until something actually happens, it's all meaningless.

Call me when there's actually something tangible to go by.

[dbeat]

Hopefully this will make it all crystal clear to you people, because i've already seen plenty of threads on power rankings and whatever the hell else...

I was reading the daily news (me being the north jersey yankee italian asshole that i am) and in the sports section they had this NFL preview where they divided the teams up by the elites, contenders, pretenders, and duds. We were the first team under pretenders.

Your average panther fan would've poo in the newspaper, ripped it to shreds and set it on fire in an irate fit of passion, but i was pretty much indifferent. This isn't a new thing, it's always happened to us that people just aren't impressed with the Panthers, and this is the reason why.

Other teams are more highly regarded, simply because they've built reputations over the years as solid teams, and continue to field some good football. The panthers are the antithesis. Why?

1. We're a young franchise. This is a huge reason itself so we automatically are at a disadvantage. A lot of teams have traditions of which predate our existence for years and years that they've more or less sustained that contribute to their heritage. What do you think the Steelers are known for? (Defense). The Cowboys? (America's Team--bleh). The Giants? (running game). The Panthers? (uhh....)

2. We are consistently inconsistent. We haven't established ourselves as contenders. We have not made the playoffs two years in a row, nor have we won a playoff game in the last 3 years. Notice almost all contenders have sustained success. The Steelers, the Titans, the Giants, etc. Other respected teams have somewhat lower levels of consistency, but they are still better than ours.

3. We are not synonymous with the word "contender". Ask any random fan to name a contender in the NFC and they're most likely to say "eagles" or "giants" more than anything else.

4. We're allergic to success. Every time the Panthers are proclaimed a good team they follow up with a characteristically bad performance. Plenty of media outlets like to go with a safe pick so they can look like they know what they are talking about, and the Panthers are far from a safe pick. For example, even when all indications point to success, the Panthers far from live up to the forecast. The playoff game last January. It was the perfect matchup for us. Nobody respected Arizona. They'd been awful on the road on the east coast the whole year, we'd been 8-0 at home. The running game was absolutely on fire. Delhomme was firing some good throws up until then. The defense was a little suspect, but one could expect the Panthers to pull through a shootout, especially since we beat them in close scoring earlier in the season. The result? An absolute piss poor performance. The offensive line couldn't handle the undersized Cardinals defensive front four. Delhomme threw into coverage constantly, as the receivers were blanketed a lot. Warner sat back and fired to the open man. Fitzgerald had about 150 of his 166 yards by halftime. The Panthers almost seemed like they didn't want it. The worst part was, we were the only team they blew out. The Falcons came within 6, the Eagles took them into overtime, and the Steelers beat them. While other teams are expected to go, say 9-7 at the worst this year, nobody has an indication if we'll be 11-5 or 4-12.

5. So many question marks surround us. The most important considered by the bulk of the media, QB. Nobody here knows for sure if Delhomme will perform well this year or fail miserably. 99% of the people who are sure he will continue a high level of play probably wear jerseys adorned with Panther graphics. The rest of the football world is skeptical. His projection is unpredictable. Second on the list is the Defense. the unit finished 18th overall last year, giving up 30+ points in each of the last 3 games, the only significant addition has been a 2nd round DE, and we're already missing our interior space-eater for the whole season. The running game is the only dimension people are respecting.

6. Our standards are low compared to better teams. To us, a single 12-4 2008 record is enough to toss us into the top 5. It didn't matter we got manhandled in the playoffs, it didn't matter the previous 2 years we've played like a pile of poo, it's convenient for us to single out the group of games we seemed to be on the ball and draw a conclusion that we're hustlers. Such conclusion is erroneous and premature. Other critics aren't looking at our 12-4, but more how we played down the stretch, which was awful. A 9-6-1 Eagles team didn't have such a lustrous regular season, but won on the road twice in the playoffs. I hate to break the news to all you humble southern folk, but other football fans as well as the mass media expect...a little...more.

All things considered it feels like Panther fans want to cash in on respect the team hasn't earned yet, and a crappy 2006 & 2007 + 12-4 + a poo playoff game doesn't impress people. Guess what: 23 teams have at least made the playoffs once in the last 3 years, we are only one of them. Almost any team can get success every once in a while. What gets the respect is sustained success, and that is a trait we've never captured, and until we do, nobody cares about us, and we will always be known as the unit that can't quite get to the next level.

Very true, most points are right on the mark. Overall we are a very inconsistent team and because of that most of us are expecting a down year. The truth is no one really knows whats going to happen this year, no matter what happens in preseason. Right now we've got a shot at the Super Bowl, this could easily be another 2003 season. Like Gantt said this Week 1 game is only 7% of the season, anything can happen.

[E CaT PanTHer]

I think it's not that people don't respect us, I think it has more to do with the fact that we're a low key team. We're not a team that makes a lot of noise in the NFL, whether it comes to making moves in Free Agency or having a head case player that puts all the attention on his team. Sure I think we're contenders, but because hardly anyone ever hears about the Panthers, we get no recognition. We hardly ever blow teams out, b/c we're such a young team we don't have any records to break, and we don't have a headcase player.

For example, if we signed T.O, I guarantee we'd be getting 10 times more media exposure than we are now, NFL analysts would be paying much more attention to us ... they would be making more predictions on our season, there would be more articles on us, etc, etc.

[Sandy Claws]

Thats alot of reading when I take a dump tonight I will take my laptop with me to finish reading it.

Don't bother, just look down when you're done.