If you look at any Carolina Panthers message board, any online ranking, or listen to any hardcore Panthers fan talk about the state of their team, you will hear a very similar sentiment regarding the team’s owner, David Tepper. As much as the NFL fans disagree with each other on essentially everything, they all agree on one thing: David Tepper needs to sell the Carolina Panthers! Before becoming the owner of the Carolina Panthers in 2018, he was a successful hedge-fund manager at Goldman Sachs, Keystone Mutual Funds, and Appaloosa Management. However, since he bought the Carolina Panthers in 2018, it has become clear that he hasn’t been able to translate his skills in the market to run an NFL franchise. A 31-66 record in his tenure is underwhelming, but what makes him hands down the worst owner in the NFL is his long and exhaustive list of poor decision-making, poor treatment of fans, coaching turnover, and inability to perform basic operational requirements for an NFL organization.
Poor decision-making
David Tepper has always been an involved owner in the Panthers front office. This has led him to make disastrous decisions like trading wide receiver DJ Moore and two first-round draft picks to the Chicago Bears for the #1 overall draft selection in the 2023 NFL draft. While this trade raised some eyebrows, it would have been alright if the Panthers had made the right selection. Coach Frank Reich and the rest of the Panthers organization had publicly expressed a desire to draft Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud. But Tepper had other ideas when he unilaterally decided that they would draft Alabama Quarterback Bryce Young. This has blown up in his face as Young underperformed during his time in Carolina while Stroud became an MVP candidate for the Houston Texans and one of the picks they traded to Chicago became the number one overall pick in this year’s draft. Due to the rift between Tepper and Reich over the selection of Bryce Young 10 games into his first season with the team, Frank Rich was fired.
Poor treatment of fans
After a humiliating 26-0 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on December 31st, 2023, Tepper threw the contents of his drink from his owner’s sweet onto fans below. The incident was recorded by a fan and posted to social media, where it blew up causing public calls for Tepper to sell the team to increase.
Coaching turnover
Since Tepper’s tenure as owner began in 2018, there have been seven active head coaches of the Carolina Panthers, the most of any team in the same amount of time.
Miscellaneous
Tepper showed an inability to meet the basic operational requirements of an NFL organization. According to public records obtained by WBTV, his company was late in paying off-duty police officers who directed traffic at NFL games. This debt lingered for over a year.
Tepper has no clear plan for the future, and this is made clear by emotional and seemingly random decisions like attempting to trade for quarterback Deshaun Watson despite multiple allegations of inappropriate behavior with team employees. The lack of a long-term vision is also obvious, as he has refused to renovate or add a dome to Bank of America Stadium, one of the oldest in the NFL. This completely takes Charlotte out of the running for hosting a Super Bowl.
Conclusion
It’s no secret that David Tepper’s actions as the owner of the Carolina Panthers have done serious harm to the team. The Harm that has caused considerable damage to the relationship between Panther’s faithful and Tepper. A relationship that is now far too damaged to continue being the team’s owner.
