Nearly eight years ago, 49ers CEO Jed York made a depressingly accurate comment about pro football.
“I own this football team,” York said after firing his third coach in three years. “You don’t dismiss owners. I’m sorry but that’s the facts, and that’s the case. That’s the fact.”
It’s a sad fact for fans of the most dysfunctional teams. Currently, the NFL’s most dysfunctional team is run by a drink-throwing, hat-removing, Veruca Salt multi-billionaire who thinks there’s a button he can press that will instantly turn his team from a train wreck into a contender.
So, no, you don’t dismiss David Tepper. There’s nothing Panthers fans can do, short of launching a sustained, multi-year boycott creating sufficient financial pressure to get him to sell the team.
Good luck with that. People don’t like to deprive themselves of things they like, even when that thing drives them to agony. Currently, Tepper’s team might drive its fans to something even worse than that — apathy.
And with Tepper, who (in my opinion, based on the available evidence and the application of common sense) forced Bryce Young onto his last coaching staff before forcing the new coaching staff to bench him, firmly in control of the team and likely looking for another incoming rookie quarterback to fall in love with (before falling out of love with him), it’s high time for college players who are finally making money to prepare to take a stand.
It happens rarely. It should happen often. For quarterbacks, that first team shapes much of the career. And that first team can ruin, or dramatically delay, the quarterback’s chance to realize his potential.
Look at the Jets. From Geno Smith to Christian Hackenberg to Sam Darnold to Zach Wilson, they’ve ruined one rookie quarterback after another. The Panthers are on that same track.
And the incoming quarterbacks have more power than ever before. Their money is the source of it. They have earned plenty. They have (or should have) banked a lot of it. They can make it clear to the Panthers, privately or if need be publicly, that they won’t sign a contract with the Panthers. That whoever is drafted by Tepper’s team will sit out for a year, live off his NIL money (and possibly earn more of it), and re-enter the draft the next time around.
That’s how it works. If a player is drafted and doesn’t sign a contract, he re-enters the next draft. If he does it again, he can pick whichever team he wants after the next draft.
The biggest challenge comes from the potential P.R. consequences. Media and fans have been so brainwashed about the honor and privilege of being drafted that few will acknowledge the very real difference between being drafted by the best organizations and the worst ones.
Look at Patrick Mahomes. He could have been drafted by a team that might have made it harder for him to fully blossom and thrive (like, you know, the Jets). Instead, he fell to the bottom of the top 10, the Chiefs jumped up 18 spots to get him, and the rest is the history that we all continue to witness.
At the other end of the spectrum, it’s the Jets and the Panthers. Quarterback whimperers, not whisperers. Teams that will keep Geno Smith from becoming Geno Smith and Sam Darnold from becoming Sam Darnold and, maybe, Zach Wilson from becoming Zach Wilson and Bryce Young from becoming Bryce Young.
Many believe that the Texans would have taken Young if they’d had the first pick in the 2023 draft, which would have sent C.J. Stroud to the Panthers. Who’s to say that, if this had happened, Young would be doing fine and Stroud would have just gotten benched?
Think back to 1999. If Akili Smith lands with the Eagles and Donovan McNabb goes to Cincinnati, maybe Smith ends up being a fringe Hall of Famer with Andy Reid, and McNabb starts 17 career regular-season games, winning only three.
It’s high time for incoming quarterbacks to take a stand when it comes to being forced to play for an inept organization. And there’s always strength in numbers. The Panthers should be the first target for a collective “no thanks” by the top prospects.
Panthers fans won’t like to hear that. But if Tepper can’t be fired or otherwise held accountable (short of something that would prompt the NFL to deploy Mary Jo White to Charlotte), something like an organized effort by the top quarterbacks to refuse to play for Tepper’s team could be the only thing to get him to shape up — or even better for Panthers fans sell out.
