Black, Blue and Booed
Posted September 30, 2007, 8:47 PM ET

So you think it's awful to be a Panther, these days?....Well, you'd be right; but it could be worse.

You could be the New York Mets. The Mets just pulled one of the all-time choke-jobs, by watching a seven-game lead disappear in the final three weeks and lost not only the division title, but also a wild card position in the process.

You could be a member of the US Women's Soccer team....don't ask me why I threw that one in the mix...I just think soccer sucks.

You could be Clemson's "Special Teams Coach"....I'm assuming that the Tigers have one. Missed field goals, blocked punts and fumbled kicks....that usually costs Tommy Bowden's guys a game or two every season.

You could be Mark Cuban and have to display your dancing skills in front of millions of people on "Dancing With The Stars".

You could be Rex Grossman....or Brian Griese.

You could be the head of programming at NBC, trying to explain the sagging television ratings of Notre Dame to your boss.

You could be the guy that invested in West Virginia's 2007 National Championship T-shirts....the Mountaineers saw that dream come to a screeching halt after being thumped by upstart South Florida.

You could be Trevor Hoffman, the only owner of 500+ saves, who was one strike away on Saturday from getting his Padres into the playoffs, but instead gave up a two-strike, two-out triple in the bottom of the ninth to Tony Gwynn, Jr....how ironic is that? The Padres are now in a one-game playoff with those crazy Colorado Rockies for the right to advance to the postseason.

You could be a head coach for half of last week's Top 13 teams in the college polls....The teams that were ranked 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11 and 13 all lost over the weekend. All in all, 9 ranked teams lost, and seven of those losses were to unranked teams.

Or, you could be the football coach for any of the teams on Tobacco Road. I have no idea when they will win again.

Well, you get the picture....but let's get back to the Panthers and their horrific effort against Tampa Bay.

This team was not ready to play. All week, we talked about the importance of the game....a chance to control the weak NFC South...a chance to establish themselves at home after a dreadful opener two weeks earlier against Houston...and a chance to put together back-to-back wins, despite the shaky effort and gift-wrapped win in Atlanta.

So what does John Fox do?....He gets his ass kicked on the opening drive, and the rest was history. I know fans are going to call in and rip David Carr and the offensive game plan....and they should. The plan by Jeff Davidson and the execution by the team was embarrassing.

I know fans are going to call up and rip Julius Peppers and the defensive effort....and they should. The Panthers were manhandled by the Bucs and at one point the stat sheet read Tampa Bay 23 first downs...Carolina 6.

I know fans are going to call in and rip the receivers Keary Colbert and Drew Carter because they can't play....and they should.

I know fans are going to call in and rip Dwayne Jarrett, even though he was actually spotted on the field and caught a pass....and they should.

Steve Smith is a great player....the Panthers might actually consider implementing a plan in which he is included....and they should. I did find it ironic that Smith was the guy bragging about the new and improved Jeff Davidson scheme before the start of the season...by the end of the month, he was chewing the offensive coach's rear end via the phone on the sideline.

I know fans are going to call in and rip DeShaun Foster and his case of fumbles...and they should. Not only did he fumble, he couldn't catch a pass to save his life.

I know fans are going to call in and rip the special teams' performances...and they should. The Panthers used to be the best in the league in this department; now they are the worst. Perhaps John Fox might look into it.

I know fans are going to call in and question the leadership of John Fox...and they should. Fox has been living off the same past reputation the Panthers' defensive front has been living on for the past few years.

I know fans are going to call in and rip the owner, Jerry Richardson....but that would be a mistake.....you heard me...back off the old man. He has engineered the greatest post-game traffic pattern in pro sports history. The Panthers never have a traffic jam following a home game, and the reason is that everybody is heading to the exits by the first three and out in the third quarter.

I'm guessing that the fourth quarter attendance of the Panthers' first two home games would be Wallace Wade Outdoor-esque. But if I had overpaid to watch our NFL team play, I would have been long gone by the start of the fourth quarter, too. Panther fans deserve a better product than the garbage the team has delivered in the past two seasons.

The fans are showing up and they're ready to go; it's too bad the Panthers aren't holding up their end of the bargain. The team hasn't won a home game since mid-November of 2006. The next home game is the last Sunday of October...the fans will have to wait a whole month to see their local heroes win the first home game of the year.....did I mention they play Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts?

If this keeps up, maybe Jerry Richardson can have a special commemorative Panther handout for the one-year anniversary of the team's last home victory.....of course, that is assuming that the fans will even be interested in the team by mid-November.

You know it's a bad sign at a Panthers game when fans are talking about the Bobcats opener as they pour out of the stadium in the third quarter, on a perfect day for football.