Sporting News best GM's

Okay, but did that happen because of Hurney, or in spite of him?

How about TWO performance enhancing drug busts, one of which was during the Super Bowl?

We've had at least one player busted for narcotics, one player killed his baby mama, another player was killed by his wife, one of our best players has put a teammate in the hospital TWICE, and one player charged with spousal abuse.

"It is what it is."

This, I agree with.

Some, I would agree with. 25+? No. Off the top of my head, maybe: Cleveland, Jacksonville, Houston, Detroit, Seattle, Oakland, Tampa, San Francisco, Arizona, Kansas City, St. Louis, Buffalo, and Cincinnatti.

 

ok, then let's turn it around. which teams would you be glad to trade the panthers for?

 

He’s part of the equation. That’s like arguing "did it happen because of Fox of in spite of him." You could make that argument about any part of the equation and not necessarily be wrong … or have made a relevant point.

It’s one thing to find the coaches cheating and another to find a few players cheating. Players cheating is not something you're proud of and I don't think the team condoned it. Still, it doesn't come close to the disgrace of NE. I think Richardson would have fired Fox and everyone else involved under the same circumstances. The difference between NE and Carolina is character and class.

We’ve had our share of players that have embarrassed us. The difference is that we go out of our way to try to avoid such embarrassments. We don't sign known problem childs and we don't tolerate or turn a blind eye to problems. Smitty busting a couple of guys in the face isn't exactly what I had in mind when I said "sordid." I’m thinking more in terms of sleazy sex scandals and drug parties. And, I’m thinking the panthers punished Smitty pretty harshly even to the point where it could have caused them to lose some games. That’s something I admire about the panthers. "Win at all costs" is not part of their ideology, whereas "just win baby" seems to be an all too common and unfortunate trademark of most teams.

 

If we're talking about staff & executives, I'd take Indy, Pittsburgh, and Green Bay over ours right now. But that's just me.

 

ok. that's 3. can you list anymore? or, in your mind, you'd keep the panthers over the over 28 teams? despite hurney and what not?

like i said originally, we may not be at the top of the class of the nfl, just close to it. can't argue with pittsburgh and indy, as they in my mind are at the top. be interesting to see how pitt handles Big Ben.

 

this is the kind of sunshine and fuzzy bunnies stuff that bothers me. what's the prize for the 8th best record? you'd think with that level of impressiveness we'd be an every-year contender. but that's not the case, rather we've had 1 playoff game since the 2005 season and it was a disaster. as far as comparing teams, there's a short list of teams in the nfc that i am confident we are better than today.

 

Baltimore, New England

 

psssst,
Chippy, Baltimore is in Maryland. Not New England.

 

pffffft.....whatever

 

and this is the kind of negativism that bothers me. the prize is that we coulda been a lot worse. the only teams that have won more playoff games during that span were Indy, NE and the Steelers. Philly tied us. not bad company, especially considering that two of those teams had the good fortune of having HOF QBs. there have been 10 teams, if my math is right, that haven't even won a playoff game during that span. things could be worse ... we could be having to root for the Cowgirls or the Iggles.

but yes, the last 4 years haven't been the best. but let's look at those years briefly:

06 - they lost Smitty early (also Wharton, Hartwig, and Morgan) and Jake midway; resorted to the wildcat to win against Atlanta cuz Weike was so horrible in the backup role.

07 - lost Jake, had signed David Carr replace Weinke as his backup and resorted to Vinny. enough said

08 - finished 12-4 before the disaster you refer to

09 - you know the story


the last 4 years are largely attributable to Jake getting hurt and then losing it completely. so i guess the question is with our draft positions and FAs available during Fox's span, who they coulda picked up at QB and didn't. I haven't done that study but my guess is that it's a really short list. maybe Warner?

i don't have confidence either ... just cuz you never know and the panthers on paper certainly don't appear to be awesome. i do feel better about our team's chances than a lot though, even with the huge ? at QB. will feel better or worse depending on how the backup QB situation ends up. steelers struggled when they didn't have a really good QB ... and it took a really bad year by them to get in position to get one (and now look at him).

but again, there's also a very short list of teams that i think have the panthers class in how they go about their business. i wanna win but i don't want to do it by throwing every virtue out the window. as long as they can win more than their fair share and maintain the same high level of integrity, I'm happy.

quit being so damn grumpy.