Written by:
10/13/2010 10:58 PM 

• While playing golf on Sunday, I pulled out the Blackberry and was checking in on NFL Mobile to get score updates. When I picked up my phone, the first score I see is Bears 17- Panthers 3 in the first quarter. I tell Mark the score and he immediately asks for Forte’s numbers….4 carries, 101 yards, 2 TD’s. As bad as my golf game was that day, it seems as if my day was better than anyone cheering for the home team at Bank of America Stadium. This team is just not very good and I don’t know how else to say it. Several friends that cover the Panthers thought that John Fox finally realized what he is dealing with and is beginning to cope with it. Many feel that behind the scenes he is not very happy with the roster he was given this year, knowing this is not a team Fox would create. Jake Delhomme and Julius Peppers have essentially said as much over the past couple of weeks. This leads me to my next question:
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• Is Jerry Richardson in danger of becoming George Shinn 2.0 here in Charlotte? Many PSL owners feel like the Panther’s owner chose to stick with fellow NFL owners over the people that helped pay for this stadium and support this team year in and year out. By getting rid of many older, more experienced, higher paid players and staying out of the free agent market this off-season, Jerry gave up on the 2010 NFL Season. The problem with this, from a PSL owner point of view, is that those PSL owners cannot do the same thing without losing their investment. PSL owners have to continue to buy tickets regardless of the product on the field or risk losing their entire investment. Jerry, on the other hand, has his entire player payroll paid off by television money before game one is even played. He may lose some money on people not coming to games and buying concessions or merchandise, but his losses long-term in fan support could be enormous. People in this town loved George Shinn when he brought professional sports to Charlotte, but turned on him when things begin to go South. The NFL is the king of all sports, but even a king can be taken down by his supporters. Hopefully things will not go this way, but if they do, well, we all saw how things went with Shinn.
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• Marvin Austin, Greg Little, and Robert Quinn were all dismissed permanently from the UNC football team. As a Tarheel fan, I cannot say any of this surprises me, as this was the rumor out there from the beginning. While what they did was completely wrong, I do find it a little disturbing that so many on the UNC message boards forget that these are all still kids. These guys were all in their early 20’s and I look back at some of the mistakes I made at that age. I was very lucky that Facebook, Twitter and MySpace were not around or prominent during my early 20’s. These guys all made some very poor decisions and are facing the repercussions of those actions, but many seem to have forgotten how much they loved these kids last season.  The message boards are there for everyone to read and some of the comments people post on here can be read by these kids, their parents, and also potential recruits. There is a lot left to be said about this entire situation, but these are someone’s kids. We all have asked for a second and maybe third chance sometimes to get things right. Maybe these kids will not get things right, but don’t that at least deserve a chance from UNC fans understanding other fan bases are going to take every shot they can?? Just a thought.
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• UFC 120 this Saturday evening on SPIKE !!! I hope my guy Kongo bounces back with a win and can Bisping be beat in his homeland??

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