David Tepper has sucked the soul out of the Carolinas

Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

Tepper hasn’t just brought mediocrity to the Panthers, but apathy

David Tepper had 10 minutes, 600 fleeting seconds to reassure not just a fanbase, but a city, that everything was going to be okay. The owner of the Carolina Panthers fired head coach Frank Reich the day before, and with a new interim coach in place it marked the sixth head coach under his watch since purchasing the Panthers in 2018.

In the 23 YEARS prior to Tepper taking over the Panthers the team only had four head coaches under Jerry Richardson’s ownership. The organization wasn’t often successful, but it was consistent. The friend you had that almost had things figured out, but you loved them even when they failed. The neighbor who would annoy you, but find a way to remain endearing enough that you cared about them anyway.

Tepper fostered the most damaging feeling in sports to permeate a city: Apathy.

With questions raging about Tepper’s decision making, his impatience, and his lack of process — fans needed to hear that this time would be different. They needed a reason to feel like the owner understood, and was ready to turn over a new leaf. Instead Tepper managed to make things much, much worse.

The owner made excuses for his coaching firings, bragging about how in his other businesses he doesn’t have this turnover. Tepper justified his ownership by making ludicrous claims about how he singlehandedly revitalized Charlotte with music. He managed to try and take credit for a sellout of FC Charlotte, his MLS team — which was entirely attributable to Lionel Messi playing in North Carolina, not because of anything Tepper did.

Then he capped it all off with his most damaging remarks about his flagship team — a hamfisted explanation of the team’s decision to draft Bryce Young, which contained the right words, but conferred all the wrong things.

“Originally we were gonna go to the No. 2 pick and we thought we’d get C.J. [Stroud], because we thought the Texans would pick Bryce. And listen, we preferred Bryce — he was our No. 1 pick, we had a lot of conviction. […] I supported the coaches, I supported the scouts, their unanimous opinion — and I supported Fran Reich’s. Whatever’s good, bad or indifferent is ultimately because the buck stops here, and I take full responsibility for everything.”

Tepper went on to reiterate that he remains confident in Bryce Young and the decision to select him with the No. 1 pick, but the damage was already done. Simply the act of discussing that the team’s original plan was to draft C.J. Stroud raised questions about the process, the awkwardness of which was perfectly explained by Marcus Spears on ESPN.

Answering questions about C.J. Stroud vs. Bryce Young is so, so easy if you’re the owner of the Panthers. It’s simple, because it’s true — and if I was standing at the podium in that position here’s what I would have said.

“Obviously C.J. is having a tremendous season, and we’re happy for him. He’s a guy we spent a lot of time with pre-draft, and what he’s done in Houston is fantastic. Bryce is still our guy. We believe in him 100 percent, so I’m not too concerned with what other players are doing. Now it’s about making sure we give Bryce the tools he needs to succeed, and I feel we need to be doing a better job — which is what making a change at coach is all about.”

This latest gaff is emblematic of the entire David Tepper era. Not just as owner of the Panthers, but as a billionaire trying to assert his influence on a city. The words might be correct, however when you read between the lines and see the intention it feels phony and off. The man might be saying that the buck stops with him. Tepper might be voicing that he accepts responsibility — but what’s intimately missing is that his instinct and intuition when it comes to football are dead wrong.

David and Nicole Tepper make no bones about being very hands-on owners. During the draft process they traveled from city to city to meet the top quarterbacks, a job typically assigned solely to the general manager and members of football operations. Tepper was solely responsible for hiring Matt Rhule, the splashy big-hire that marked Tepper’s first major move as an NFL owner. Tepper was key in hiring Frank Reich to be his second head coach. Now he’s talking openly about how he had veto power when it came to the decision on Bryce Young as the No. 1 pick, but chose not to use it.

Sure, when it comes to brass tacks these are all his prerogatives as team owner. Tepper can do precisely what he likes with his team and be as involved in the process as he wants to be. The problem is that he’s markedly bad at this. All of it. History has shown Tepper is a bad judge of football coaches, he’s bad at communicating with the media, and he’s impatient when his decisions go wrong — leading him to rush into another poorly made David Tepper decision.

It’s impossible to discuss the 180 in ownership this team has seen, to discuss the halcyon days of Richardson by comparison, without cementing that, once again, Richardson turned out to be a massive creep. Behind closed doors he sexually harassed members of staff, the team paid hush money to keep these claims private, and there’s at least one example of Richardson using a racial slur. The man deserved to have his statue removed from Bank of America Stadium — but that doesn’t change that on the football side of things, the on-field element of the Panthers, Richardson still ran things the right way.

Richardson, the “Big Cat” as he used to affectionately be called, placed full and complete trust in two people to run his football team: A team president to handle the business side, and a general manager to oversee football ops. Sure, he met with rookies and had a personal relationship with players — but he never pretended to be the smartest man in the room when it came to decision making.

There was a feeling, however insignificant it was at times, that at least Richardson didn’t trifle in how the team was run. If anything he was too loyal to the people he had in these trusted positions, giving them far too much leeway even when it was clear the team wasn’t improving. It didn’t make the team exciting, but at least they were consistent. At least it fostered a feeling of pride in the organization for doing things in a rational way. It felt like the organization was part of the community, and constantly trying to get better — even when it didn’t work.

That era is gone now. It’s been replaced with hollow words and misplaced action. It doesn’t feel good to be a fan of the Carolina Panthers anymore. Not because they aren’t winning, fans have endured plenty of losing seasons before — but because it no longer feels like the team is a part of the city’s DNA. They’re now one man’s vanity project, and we’re just along for the ride.

Wins will come and go. Victories are fleeting. The damage that has been done to how the Panthers organization is perceived is generational, and sadly we’re still in the opening chapter. The Carolina Panthers have lost their soul, and I don’t know if it’s ever coming back.