Connecting how Panthers owner David Tepper “runs a hedge fund with how he’s run his football team” can “go a long way in explaining ... the challenge he’s still facing through a labored, painful adjustment to running an NFL franchise,” according to Albert Breer of SI. Coming from a world that is “very results-driven,” Tepper’s instinct is to “apply that in a business that’s more process-oriented.” That leads to a "broader issue” in that he can “be a little overly reactive.” A former Panthers coach said Tepper “looks at it like a stock -- you make a poor investment, there’s a sunk cost, boom, you move on.” Breer noted after firing coach Frank Reich after 11 games, the third head coach the Panthers have fired since Tepper bought the team in 2018, a big question going forward centers on "where the owner’s presence alone leaves the Panthers heading into what’s expected to be a very competitive coaching market.” For any prospective replacement for Reich, or for “others looking at jobs in that organization, and especially for those with options,” a “simple question needs to be asked: Is David Tepper the owner I want to go work for?” That person is going to have to be “sure he wants to work for an owner who’ll push him and always look for answers.” But Tepper is “not in the building daily,” so he “lacks the day-to-day context needed to be that hands-on as an owner" (SI, 11/28).
UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS: In Charlotte, Scott Fowler wrote he "didn't get a chance to ask a question” of Tepper on Tuesday, as he and Panthers PR “froze me out of the 14-minute news conference." Fowler: “The question I never got to ask was: Speaking of self-reflection: I wonder how much blame you take for what’s gone wrong here since you bought the team. You’ve fired three NFL head coaches in midseason. You’re now on your third interim head coach. Do you ever look in a mirror and say, 'Is it me?'" Fowler wrote Tepper "owes Carolina fans an answer to that." Fowler: "He isn't cheap. He's engaging in person. I truly believe he will spend whatever it takes to win; he just doesn’t spend it correctly. He’s messed up the Panthers’ on-field product.” What happened Tuesday was the Panthers “burying their head in the sand like ostriches, trying to feed fans a bunch of platitudes and shutting things down when it got a little uncomfortable” (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 11/28).
