Jump to content
  • Welcome!

    Register and log in easily with Twitter or Google accounts!

    Or simply create a new Huddle account. 

    Members receive fewer ads , access our dark theme, and the ability to join the discussion!

     

this month....


Recommended Posts

please be brutal as always, (not yet edited)

A Fan Base Divided?

Sometimes just being a fan can be quite stressful. But I am not talking about the roller coaster of success and failure. No, I am talking about the business side of sports and how often the lines are skewed for passionate fans in their love for what really amounts to a significant business enterprise. The fans of any particular team do have their respective love for that team in common but usually little else. Especially in professional sports it is a given that fans from both ends of the spectrum on both business sense and personal values will root their team to victory or curse them in defeat alongside one another. That is until a rift in the organization squares them against each other in vehement opposition. Where should a fan place the blame when decisions are being made about key personnel? Do we blame the spoiled athlete of whom we may have an expensive jersey hanging in the closet for game day? Do we blame the entrusted front office personnel who quietly operate under the team flag and are charged with balancing the budget and success level of a franchise simultaneously? Or do we go a step further and lay blame at the feet of the big dog, the league office for empowering franchise owners with sometimes controversial tools that in some opinions cause many of the issues faced? In most instances fault is easily bestowed due to the situation being cut and dry, but sometimes a situation presents itself that has so many unknowns and involves such extremes that the average fan becomes confused with the combination of his emotion and what he feels to be “right”. No such event has plagued the Carolinas in recent memory as has the struggle for power between Julius Peppers and the front office of the Carolina Panthers.

To closely look at the facts in the situation in Charlotte is a scary thing involving some of the strangest opposing views ever witnessed in the NFL. To others the root of the issue is glaring. I look at the situation as an unsalvageable and extremely unfortunate standoff. Julius Peppers is arguably the face of the franchise and has been since he was drafted a decade ago by Carolina. He is one of the top 5% of NFL players when it comes to the respect he commands and the relative compensation he enjoys. Julius has also been a model citizen throughout his career. We have not heard so much as a whimper of bad press concerning him for actions on or off the field. Julius has been a money-making, fan-generating asset to the franchise from the moment he was selected second overall behind David Carr some ten years ago. Now he says he wants out. His potential needs to be met. His position and scheme needs to change. He wants an outright release. Marty Hurney says no. By placing the franchise tag on Peppers he has the right to match any offers that come the way of Pep and his agent. In turn a “tender offer” is made and has to be signed prior to the executives in Carolina working on a trade. Peppers has not signed this tender. A deal has not even been offered in the form of a trade. The draft has come and gone without any “big announcement” that many fans hoped for. Marty cannot even shop him around the league and there seems no end in sight. All the while Peppers is guaranteed one million dollars a game this season with a swipe of his agent’s MONTBLANC and without his required attendance at camp and OTA’s, one of which he has already missed.

So where do you stand? As a Panther fan can you legitimately blame Peppers for anything? He is not cooperating per say but he has to look out for number one. Right? What are your feelings about the decision to tag him now? To tag him we had to sign an aging Jordan Gross to a long term deal and extend Jake Delhomme to free up the space to plug in some undrafted free agents. What do you feel about the franchise tag in itself? Good tool or root of all things evil in the NFL?

Hopefully there is already something resolved between the two camps and the unyielding tight-lips of the Carolina Panthers front office are allowing us this suffering as some type of really cruel joke. But what if they aren’t? Where do you place blame?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is just an extended version of every one of your posts for the last several months... what's the point?

In the end, the only one that has the potential of losing out is Pep. He has the right to want to leave, the Panthers have the right to franchise him. Both sides are being stubborn, but if he doesn't play, we'll make due with the DEs we have... he, on the other hand, will lose out on money.

Why does there need to be someone to blame...? They're just handling their business the way that they think is best. Whether we think that's how it's happening or not, is completely irrelevant.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm putting the Over/Under at...

# of new threads carolinarolls makes about the same topic: 10

# of new posts he makes about this same topic: 200

I'm taking over on both...

:D Sorry, C-Rolls. He's got a point.:rofl:

But, in your defense...there is really nothing more interesting to talk about...except Jake Delhomme.:drool5:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

haha and yet not a single reply pertaining to the actual thread. genius!

We've learned there's only so much you can say to him. He takes a dissenting stance as often as possible and holds onto it as long as he can before giving it up and moving on to something else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


  • PMH4OWPW7JD2TDGWZKTOYL2T3E.jpg

  • Topics

  • Posts

    • And once again I showed you it’s been pretty even. We spent 2nd and 3rd rounders this past draft on edge rushers. No one’s going to sit here and do the math on a draft value chart etc. the only reason I even entertained this was because you said we’ve spent nothing on defense when that simply isn’t true. It also didn’t help we traded our ONLY WR worth a damn to trade up for Bryce soo… And this is kind of the issue with the anti Bryce crowd. This crowd tends to blame him for the trade up. I was team Stroud. Had the panthers not taken Young the only other QB they were going to take was Richardson. So your issue should be with Tepper, Morgan, Fitterer not Bryce.  Bryce is who he is and it was pretty obvious who he was during the draft process. Bryce is slowly developing into that guy most thought he’d be. Give him a WR like Jamo and this offense as a whole would improve greatly.  Anyone thinking he was the next Pat Mahomes or Josh Allen is clearly slow. Bryce was always going to need pieces around him much like EVERY other QB Burrow has Chase and Higgins and they’ve done nothing. After losing in AFC Championship in 2022, Burrow is 17-15. QB’s need a team around them It’s why a Jalen Hurts led Eagles team dismantled a Pat Mahomes led KC team in the SB Imo the QB’s doing the most with the least up until this year have been Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson  This year it’s Drake Maye and Josh Allen  Outside of the 3-5 elite type QB’s I’m not really sure what people expect here. Is Bryce ever going to be in that elite category? Nope. Should we punt on Bryce and keep swinging? I don’t think so. Should we keep swinging while hanging onto Bryce? Yeah but I don’t know what that looks like This team as a whole isn’t very good. Offense and defense and that’s the simple truth  
    • I didn't move the goal posts. But anyone who follows football who wants to engage in a rational discussion can't argue that 10 7th round picks are equal to 10 1st rounders in value. The argument has always been we haven't spent as much on defense has we have on offense. Draft picks have value just like salary. We have not spent the same amount of draft pick salary cap on defense that we have on offense since drafting Bryce. It's not even close. Just the 2 1sts we used on Bryce, 2 overall 1sts have a value of 6000. That doesn’t even factor in DJ Moore or the 2 2nds. Bryce cost more than everything we've spent on defense in 6 damn years. 
    • We need to hope this scenario plays our next week he fails with pressure…what that means with Evero, is beyond me
×
×
  • Create New...