Shop Panthers While the Deals Last

Are you a Carolina Panthers fan who’s looking for a distraction from all the NFL Draft hype? Well, you can always give yourself some good old fashioned retail therapy over at Shop.Panthers.com. The official merchandise website of the Carolina Panthers, Shop.Panthers.com is the place to pick up all your Carolina Panthers gear- from the stuff you wear to the stuff you eat off of, to the stuff you’ll slap on your car.

First place we’re going to direct you to is the clearance section. It’s the offseason, so there’s bound to be some good deals out there. In the jersey department, there are some out-of-date jerseys that are going pretty cheap, such as David Carr, Keyshawn Johnson and Kerry Colbert jerseys. If you’re looking for something for the office, might we suggest you get a Julius Peppers action figure. It will look fearsome posing on your desk all season long.  The site seems to be plugging the car accessories right now, and our favorite is either the Panthers fuzzy dice or the Panthers steering wheel cover. Get all your gear now so that you can enjoy the whole season in true Panthers style.

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Who Are the Top 5 Panthers Wideouts?

We found this Bleacher Report by Eric Quackenbush via the link at a CBSSports.com page about the Carolina Panthers. If you’re kind of getting sick of all the draft day hype, you can get a nice little breath of fresh air with this interesting piece. The article is basically a slideshow that gives up this guy’s opinion about who the top five Carolina Panthers wide receivers have been over the past 14 years of the franchise’s existence. While that history isn’t particularly large, compared to other teams, the Panthers have still accumulated a nice bunch of wide receivers in their past. He also lists three honorable mentions.

Once you click through the slide show, you’ll see that his picks aren’t that controversial. Steve Smith seems to be clearly the No.1 in this group. He’d probably be the No. 1 on several teams, assuming he played for them. The slide show does bring up some interesting questions. When you’re rating a team’s best players, do you weight some layers more heavily based on the amount of time that they were on the team? For instance, Randy Moss spent much of his career elsewhere before going to the Patriots. Do you count that time away from the team in favor of Moss, or do you look at his contributions to the team alone? Something to think about.

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Get Rid of That Load!

That’s right, John Fox, it’s time to get rid of that $16.68 million burden. The Carolina Panthers have been unusually quiet this year ever since the free agency started, and part of that reason is undoubtedly because they have no money to spend until Julius Peppers is gone. The disgruntled defensive end has complicated things for the Panthers over the last several weeks as he has made demands for being traded. If the Panthers play things right, the team will benefit from his departure, but it all depends on the deal at hand.

As of late, there have been talks of Julius Peppers being traded to New England for what would appear to be a 34th pick in the draft, though both teams have denied trade discussions. When coach John Fox was recently prompted about his reaction to the supposed trade, he said, “I can’t really comment on exactly how I felt. It was almost laughable. That can’t happen. Our system, I think that most people are educated enough to understand our system. I didn’t give it much thought at all actually.” So if he’s not going to the Patriots, where will Julius Peppers go? The question still looms above the heads of Carolina players and fans, and nothing else can be resolved until this 6-foot-7, 283-pound burden hightails it out of Charlotte.

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Panthers Want Delhomme, No Matter If Charlotte Doesn’t

Remember that time Jake Delhomme threw hand grenades instead of pro football passes and had five interceptions in a playoff game that took the Carolina Panthers down faster than the sinking Titanic? Wait - that was this year against the Arizona Cardinals, and some Carolina fans aren’t yet ready to forget it. Regardless of whether or not Panthers fans are willing to forgive Delhomme for having a bad game at an inopportune time (hey, it happens to the best of us, right?), the Panthers are nonetheless ready to move forward, making steps toward offering Jake Delhomme a contract extension with the team.

Jake Delhomme is in the final year of his current contract, which lays a whopping $11 million against the Panthers’ salary cap, and the team figures that by signing Delhomme an extension it could cut around half of that sum for the ’09 cap figure. While complications are imminent and nothing has been finalized yet, coach John Fox has confirmed once again that Delhomme will be the starting quarterback for the Panthers in the near future, though nothing is nailed down. Fox recently said, “There is no question we’ve got a commitment to Jake. Whether that comes to fruition with a contract (extension), I can’t say.” How many years does Delhomme have left in Charlotte? We’ll find out soon!

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Richardson Still on the Mend

Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson has had a rough last couple of months, and not just because his beloved team didn’t make it to the Super Bowl. Richardson has been battling heart troubles for an extended period of time, and while it’s been almost two months since he endured heart transplant surgery, Richardson is still recovering from the major operation, leaving franchise owners around the nation to become this football figure’s biggest support group.

This week’s NFL annual meetings of franchise owners has been one without the face of Jerry Richardson, and the Panthers owner has undoubtedly been missed by his fellow multi-millionaires and frenemies. Even New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has come out to show his loyalty to Richardson, giving him a giant teddy bear named “Patriot Bob” following his surgery. While Jerry Richardson’s son Mark has taken his place at this year’s annual meetings, it’s clear that his father is missed by the other team owners around the league. Mark Richardson recently made a statement discussing the camaraderie between owners, saying, “We compete with each other on Sunday, but we are also business partners every day of the year and we’re also very good friends. I would say some of the best friends my father has in the world, and some of my closest friends, are people who sit in that (meeting) room. We are family.” Here’s to wishing Jerry Richardson a speedy recovery.

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Panthers Put Freeze on Ticket Prices

It’s only the end of March, but September seems just around the corner for many football fans, as the NFL world is already gearing up for the 2009 season. The Monday Night Football season opener has already been announced with the New England Patriots and the Buffalo Bills playing each other (with another game featuring the San Diego Chargers and Oakland raiders following,) and while this announcement is getting football fans across the nation geared up for the upcoming season, one thing stands in the way between fans and football: tickets to the big games.

Football tickets to games have been going up over the last several years across the nation, and so it has been with the Carolina Panthers, who have sold out all but two home games since Bank of America Stadium opened in Charlotte in 1996. While last year saw a five percent increase from ticket prices in 2007, the Panthers have recently announced that they will freeze ticket prices for the 2009 season, making tickets more affordable to their loyal fans. Single ticket prices will go on sale this summer and range from $51 to $90, giving Panthers fans a sigh of relief.

To get Carolina Panthers tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Panthers Lose Seward to Colts

Six-foot-two, 250-pound linebacker Adam Seward has officially become the fourth unrestricted free agent for the Panthers to leave Charlotte, exiting Carolina over the weekend to join the ranks of Jim Caldwell and the Indianapolis Colts for next season’s NFL play. 26-year-old Seward signed a one-year deal with the Colts that will help secure Indianapolis’ waning linebacker crew, as neither Freddy Keiaho nor Tyjuan Hagler (both free agents) have been re-signed with the team yet.

Seward, a four-year NFL veteran, was drafted out of UNLV by the Panthers in the fifth round of the 2005 NFL Draft and has appeared in 40 career games with Carolina, playing mostly on special teams but also making two starts as linebacker. Adam Seward joins offensive linemen Frank Omiyale (Chicago) and Geoff Hangartner (Buffalo) as well as returner Mark Jones (Tennessee) as the other unrestricted free agents to leave the Panthers during this offseason. Carolina’s only free agents left on the team include defensive tackle Darwin Walker, linebacker Donte Curry and long snapper Jason Kyle, and any or all of these players could be the next to go.

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It’s All Up to Peppers

Well, sort of. Given the whirling speculation regarding Julius Peppers being traded to the New England Patriots for a second round draft pick, something was needed to either confirm or deny the reports that have been flying in over the past week or so, and Bill Belichick was the first to put his foot down on the situation, coming out to Boston radio station WEEI yesterday in an interview by denying trade talks with Peppers and perhaps even pressuring the Panthers DE into signing his franchise tender.

Basically saying that he wouldn’t consider Peppers until he has signed his $16.68 million franchise tender, Belichick made a statement that he didn’t like using an agent as a go-between in deals like this, saying, “I don’t think that’s a good way to do business. I personally would not do it that way. I think if a player wants to be traded or wants to be in a position where he could be traded, then the best thing for that player to do is what Matt Cassel did – sign the tender, be under contract and then go to the team and say, ‘Okay, I don’t want to be here, trade me. This is where I want to go.’” Julius Peppers, it looks like the ball’s in your court!

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Peppers Costing Peppers, This Time with Jones

Our reports earlier this week on the future of Carolina Panthers kickoff returner Mark Jones have officially been proven true, as Jones just signed a multiyear contract with the Tennessee Titans in an undisclosed deal. Jones was scooped up by the Titans after Tennessee lost cornerback Chris Carr to the Baltimore Ravens, and his loss to the Panthers is another blow that comes with these unrestricted free agents leaving the team.

Mark Jones is the third unrestricted free agent for the Carolina Panthers to leave the team this offseason, following in the footsteps of offensive linemen Geoff Hangartner and Frank Omiyale (Hangartner went to Buffalo, while Omiyale went to Chicago.) Why is Carolina letting so many valuable players go? It appears to be in part because of the Peppers issue, as the Panthers made a huge salary cap move when they stuck the franchise tag on the defensive for more than $16.6 million. Now the team is overwhelmed with a tight salary cap, and partly as a result the Panthers haven’t signed any of their unrestricted free agents, letting players like Jones, Hangartner and Omiyale walk. Of course, the Panthers have still kept some of their most valuable players such as Jordan Gross, so the team is nowhere near troubled when it comes to the heavy hitters (yes, even without Peppers.)

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Panthers Stay Busy in the Offseason

The Carolina Panthers have had some significant time off over the last couple months to rehash that ugly loss to the Arizona Cardinals in the playoffs, and this week the Panthers have gone back to the place where they last suffered that disappointing defeat, jumping headfirst into offseason training at Bank of America Stadium. While several Panthers are getting back into the swing of things in Charlotte, practice isn’t the only thing these standout athletes have been focusing their time and efforts on.

Several Panthers have also taken part in various service projects, the latest of which involved cats in hats, as left guard Travelle Wharton, linebacker Thomas Davis and wide receiver Kenneth Moore recently dressed up in striped top hats to read Dr. Seuss classics to students at First Ward Elementary in Charlotte. The players spent a day acting as role models to elementary students, and Moore described his interest in the event, saying, “The thing is, I don’t even remember somebody like a professional athlete coming back to my school and talking to us. I can understand and imagine how I would have felt if that had happened for me, so it felt great to come here, help these kids out and show them that there are things they can do to lead them to bigger things. It means a lot. Being from here and knowing kids locally, it means a lot just to be able to show my face and show that I care about the kids.”

To get Carolina Panthers tickets, go to StubHub.com.

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