Tom Talks

Did Ron Rivera and the Carolina Panthers do enough?

    What do you say about this season? The Carolina Panthers started miserably and finished beautifully and, for the fourth straight season, failed to make the playoffs.

      After a 44-38 victory against New Orleans the Panther locker room was a testament to team. There was tackle Jordan Gross huddling with quarterback Cam Newton, laughing, talking. There was Newton talking to tight end Greg Olsen, kidding and joking.

     The Panthers lost five of their first six and won their final four. So they feel good about their finish and miserable about their start.

     Also interesting will be what happens next. I'll be shocked if a decision whether to retain head coach Ron Rivera is made Monday or this week. It has to be the general manager's call, and the Panthers don't have one.

      Carolina won one more game than it did last season, and last season it won four more games than it did the season before.

       Is that enough?

 

Did Ron Rivera and the Carolina Panthers do enough?

    What do you say about this season? The Carolina Panthers started miserably and finished beautifully and, for the fourth straight season, failed to make the playoffs.

      After a 44-38 victory against New Orleans the Panther locker room was a testament to team. There was tackle Jordan Gross huddling with quarterback Cam Newton, laughing, talking. There was Newton talking to tight end Greg Olsen, kidding and joking.

     The Panthers lost five of their first six and won their final four. So they feel good about their finish and miserable about their start.

     Also interesting will be what happens next. I'll be shocked if a decision whether to retain head coach Ron Rivera is made Monday or this week. It has to be the general manager's call, and the Panthers don't have one.

      Carolina won one more game than it did last season, and last season it won four more games than it did the season before.

       Is that enough?

 

If you're going to rip Panther owner Jerry Richardson sign your name

   I read the angry Panthers Pyramid Scheme open letter to Jerry Richardson Monday morning when I got off the red-eye from San Diego.

      I wish more people would take out full-page advertisements in the Charlotte Observer when they're angry or optimistic or pretty much anything else. Feel content? Buy an ad.

     But the open letter failed for me when I skipped to the bottom and saw that it was paid for by the Perturbed Panther PSL Owners Federation.

     In other words, the writer was willing to spend several thousand dollars to publicize his cause. Yet he didn't believe in the cause enough to attach his name.

      This will sound old-fashioned, but it's true. You have to account for what you say and what you write. When I'm overrun by email I skip those that are unsigned.

      If somebody rips me, that's their prerogative. But if they don't sign their work why should I care?

       I've never understood the quest for anonymity. If you want to hide, find a message board.

      The single-spaced letter on 10C Monday offered 17 paragraphs, a chart, exclamation points, an underlined phrase and words that were capitalized.

       What it lacked said much more.

 

 

 

Panthers own December. Nov, Oct, Sept, not so much

    Fans of the Carolina Panthers have an interesting choice to make.

    Are they thrilled the Panthers finally have become the team they envisioned?

    Or are they angry that the Panthers needed three months to become that team?

George Shinn would love to bring Hornets' name back to Charlotte

   I talked to George Shinn, the former owner of the Charlotte, and New Orleans, Hornets Tuesday.

    How does he feel about the Charlotte Bobcats becoming the Charlotte Hornets?

     He feels so strongly that he would visit NBA commissioner David Stern to help make it happen.

     "The Hornets' name doesn't belong to me," Shinn said by telephone from outside Nashville, where he lives and where his foundation is based. "It belongs to Charlotte. In my opinion, the name would be great for the club, for Michael (owner Michael Jordan) and for the community. I hope he uses the colors, the mascot, all of that."

      Shinn made it clear he wasn't telling Jordan what to do. He was offering his assistance if Jordan chooses to apply for the name.

       The the Bobcats can't petition the league for Hornets until New Orleans relinquishes it.

       But those Hornets would like to become the Pelicans as soon as next season. 

        You old-timers will recall that after Shinn and Charlotte were awarded a team he put together a committee of local leaders to come up with a name. They chose Spirit.

        The response from the community was overwhelmingly negative, and Shinn didn't like the name. So he proposed new ones, the most popular of which were Cougars and Hornets. Hornets was the overwhelming favorite then and, it would appear, now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carolina-Kansas City? It feels like football

   Not sure what I expected at Arrowhead Stadium today. But I didn't expect an interesting game, and that's what we have.

      Chiefs playing amazingly well, Carolina defense amazingly poorly. Kansas City quarterback Brady Quinn threw 14 passes in the first half and completed 12. He was never sacked and rarely pressured. Luke Kuechly just sacked him on Kansas City's first series of the second half, however.

     Some of us will write that the crowd is subdued. But the home team has one victory and the worst record in the NFL. The visitors are 3-8. Together they're 4-18. So why wouldn't the crowd be sparse and somewhat subdued.

      Again, I had no idea what the day would feel like.

      It feels like every other Sunday. It feels like football.

Going ahead with Chiefs-Panthers game today is only alternative

   Still convinced that the NFL, and Kansas City, did the right thing by agreeing to play Carolina at Arrowhead Stadium today.

    What does anybody gain by not playing? The game is going to be played at some juncture, and pushing it back to Monday or Tuesday would makes it no less awkward.

     I don't pretend the game will be a healing experience. It's football. Maybe people, and players and coaches and general managers, lose themselves in it for three hours. Maybe they don't.

      Either way, there's no alternative. Play.