Apathy

[KSpan]

Yup. Die-hard out of town fan since '95 and my big dropoff came with the retention of Ron and Hurney for 2019. It was so very obvious that change was desperately needed and yet... nothing. Love the players and greatly appreciate their efforts on a human level but I'm well into 'just friends' territory with the team entity at this point.

For all of the glaring football-related faults that JR had (the man appears to be a bad human being, but this comment is football focused), the team at least seemed to have a plan and vision even if they sucked at emulating the Steelers. Tepper just seems like he plays buzzword bingo at times and the organization is flailing a bit right now.

[Squid Game]

12 minutes ago, thefuzz said:

All starts at the very tip top.

Since Dave Tepper has purchased this team there has been very little, if any good to come of it.

Once again, another example of "just because you are rich doesn't mean you are smart".

The fans deserved better.  Total disaster from the start.

I’ve been saying this forever. People and talking heads want to praise Tepper for being such an aggressive hedge funder, but this is football not the stock market. You can’t buy a franchise QB low and sell him high. Tepper has bought Teddy and Darnold high and have already sold Teddy for low. Jerry Richardson ended his stint here in Carolina in a bad way but the man played and knows football unlike Tepper. 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Squid Game

[LinvilleGorge]

This is the hardest thing about being a pro sports fan. At some point, losing is actually in your best interests due to draft order. At least when you're rooting for a college team you can always root for your team to win. There's no competitive advantage to losing. There is in the NFL if you're not playoffs bound.

[thefuzz]

3 minutes ago, Panther'sBigD said:

For all of you yammering on about how you're going to skip watching games from now on, and invest your time in other things, we all know that's horseshit. You're going to be in here rage posting and acting like your manhood's been taken from you if the team you like is losing. Get ready for this team to suck until they get some line help, and the rookies get more experience. I haven't seen less realistic expectations for a coaching staff and rookie class on this board in a looooong time. 

It's going to get worse before it gets better. Maybe buy a smoker or build yourself a nice firepit or something, so you'll have it for next year...

 

I do not share your views on this fanbase.

The fans here WILL support the team, and do, until there is reason enough not to.  That's where many of us are.

Those of us who spend a lot of money at the team store, or who travel to a lot of both home and away games (home game is well over $1,000.00 for me to make the trip), have already stopped spending that money.  Next will come the actual games...that's happened to me already.  Think it's not happening around BOA on gamedays?  Check out the complain threads about visitor team fan invasions.

Too bad too, Tepper could have really cemented the fanbase had he done anything correctly after closing on the purchase...instead he has done zero correct, and uncountable things wrongly.

He deserves this, the fans do not.

[thefuzz]

7 minutes ago, KSpan said:

Yup. Die-hard out of town fan since '95 and my big dropoff came with the retention of Ron and Hurney for 2019. It was so very obvious that change was desperately needed and yet... nothing. Love the players and greatly appreciate their efforts on a human level but I'm well into 'just friends' territory with the team entity at this point.

For all of the glaring football-related faults that JR had (the man appears to be a bad human being, but this comment is football focused), the team at least seemed to have a plan and vision even if they sucked at emulating the Steelers. Tepper just seems like he plays buzzword bingo at times and the organization is flailing a bit right now.

"Focusing on the business side of things first."

Not bringing in a seasoned "President of Football Operations" when taking over the team.

2 Carolinas 1 Team

Keeping Ron and Hurney when a need for change was as clear as could be.

Firing Ron and keeping Hurney.  Ron was bad, Hurney is an anchor.

"Sports Complex" more important than football.

Soccer more important than football.

Concerts more important than football.

Building a new stadium more important than football.

 

All around, a disgrace so far...and not a shocking one with the way he started out.

 

[Squid Game]

8 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

This is the hardest thing about being a pro sports fan. At some point, losing is actually in your best interests due to draft order. At least when you're rooting for a college team you can always root for your team to win. There's no competitive advantage to losing. There is in the NFL if you're not playoffs bound.

That’s one of the problem. This franchise has shown that they don’t know when to lose. We won meaningless games the last couple of years late in the season to drop us down in the draft. We lucked out with Brian Burns but we also missed out on Justin Herbert and Penei Sewell. 

[mwright350]

I posted something similar elsewhere but it fits here too.

What I find difficult is being heavily invested in the week to week games right now.  Not some hyperbolic "fug it ima go play golf" or whatever, just that my level of give-a-poo has dramatically lowered regarding the outcome of a game any given week.  I listen to smaller chunks of fewer podcasts, I don't much care to listen to the same rehashed negativity on the radio day in and day out, and more importantly I'm not terribly motivated to make the (admittedly short) drive from Salisbury to Charlotte to see the team play.

Oddly that has nothing to do with the fact that we're losing, or even one person / unit being particularly bad.  More that it's difficult to watch a product on the field where one unit has descended into an unwatchable mess across the board in just a few weeks, another needs benny hill music to play when they're on the field, and the defense is being made to play until they can't walk because of the other two.  Sometimes even losing can be entertaining, if upsetting.  Losing while looking like most of the team doesn't belong on the field just isn't.

[Jackie Lee]

23 minutes ago, raleigh-panther said:

I totally understand.
 

 You also have PANTHERS TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER 

Decades of incompetence do that  

Now, a coach who doesn’t appear to get the importance of a qb, and a competent backup and the salary cap   It isn’t helping 

I had and have serious doubts about Rhule and his staff and about Rhule’s ability to know the Nfl is full of specialist athletes  that do their specific jobs  extremely well   Being versatile is great but it is so much more than that and you just can’t ‘coach them up.

Too, tepper’s made the stadium and stadium atmosphere extremely cold.

There is absolutely nothing special about it and then to have those ‘stadium on field seats’  full of opposing fans…..in an end zone where kids used to get balls after TDs, poor just poor  
 

The music that is played while the players are warming up and piped to the restrooms and other areas is hideous and vulgar and look, I’m no prude but I don’t want to hear WAP and the rest with my family and friends there 

the team store is CMC and the freaking soccer  team 

I try and remember it is a beautiful day  it is a privilege to go the games on Sunday and spend time with my friends   It works…until kickoff 

 

Yeah the turf, the field level suites with 10 rich assholes eating pancakes in front of the players, the end zones, the keep pounding chant probably wouldn't even work at this point if they brought it back. 

[ENCPantherfan2]

Another angle on this is the rise of the Hornets. Who wants to go to BOA and watch a team tripping over themselves, when you have a team just up the road in Spectrum, have probably a future Top 10 player in Lamelo Ball, Miles Bridges, Terry Rozier, Gordon Heyward, and a host of other players making a playoff push, because if it wasn't for injury, they would have made it.  NBA tickets are cheaper, and probably these days would be a better game day experience. At this rates the BOA will be half full while the Spectrum Center will be packed almost nightly. Lamelo is to the Hornets is what Cam was to the Panthers. 

[Panther53521]

I am right there with you. After the loss, I started seriously thinking about letting my season tickets go too. I am a proud PSL owner, but after seeing that game, I was was thinking, why am I wasting so much time and money on this terrible team.

I started thinking about selling my PSL’s and just going with App St. season tickets….. at least I could watch some good football

[Peppers90 NC]

I watched maybe 10 mins of the game last week, was horrendous. Too many other real football teams playing that are way more interesting. Last week was the first time in my life I spent more time watching other games when the Panthers were on. I would imagine if Rhule and the staff are losing faith of the fans, it is highly possible they are losing faith of the players as well. Sad times.

Edited October 27, 2021 by Peppers90 NC

[TipToeTyler]

After getting the shaft for the field level suites...I don't let it bother me as bad when we look horrible...which we do.  I'm glad Tepper looks like a joke.  I still root for the boys but happily sell my bs replacement seats every game.

[bigdog10]

Trotting out the likes of Kyle Allen, Taylor Heinekie, Teddy Bridgewater, PJ Walker, Will Greir and Sam Darnold will do that to a fan base. 
 

the last time I cared so little about this team was 2010. Luckily, that led to Cam. 

[BurnNChinn]

50 minutes ago, travisura said:

I was optimistic about Rhule heading into this season. We had a good draft behind us, and with one more year of good drafting + key FA acquisitions/trades, I thought we'd be fully ready to compete year in and year out. Now it just feels like someone has taken all the air out of the room and there's no getting it back in. The players don't seem as motivated, Rhule and Brady are getting outclassed by the league's worst coaching staffs, and the whole Darnold fiasco seems like it could set us back several years. I've never gone from high hopes to no hope at all in such a short time. I'll still watch them, but until something changes, it's gonna be hard to get behind this team.

Oh no don’t jump on the Debbie Downer train, u can’t do that!