Charlotte Panthers Football: Success Amidst Apathy

How should a city with an elite football team behave in the week leading up to a home playoff game? I asked myself this question after Dave tasked me with writing a column about the state of Charlotte on the eve of their home playoff game. On the surface it looks like Charlotte is a great football town. The Panthers are undefeated at home, have a great stadium, and getting a ticket is nearly impossible. But looks are deceiving.

In normal cities a successful football team drowns every other sport out. I have lived in Cincinnati, Indianapolis (kind of) and Washington DC, and in all 3 cities when the football teams were good, the city went crazy. In Peyton’s hey-day of the early 2000’s you would have thought there was a dress code in Indiana, everyone was Colt crazy. Cincinnati went from a joke to an offensive powerhouse in 2 years and the city transformed back into the Jungle (heck we got Bootsy Collins to do the Who-Dey chant). And if you live and listen to the media in DC you would think the Redskins are the greatest team in the history of football, not to mention their 90,000 seat stadium is sold out for the next 500 years. But Charlotte is not a normal city.

Charlotte is an incredibly apathetic pro sports city. Charlotte is an ACC basketball and an SEC football town, the pro teams take a back seat. If Duke played Carolina at the same time as the Panthers’ game this weekend I honestly think more people would watch the hoops game. And while the Bobcats are horrible, they shouldn’t have to run ‘Star Wars Attack of the Clones’ the cartoon night to try and entice people to come to the games. Honestly free hot dog and dippin’ dots night at George Mason vs William and Mary last year was better attended.

The lead 3 stories on the terrible morning sports shows this morning were UNC losing to BC, Stephan Curry’s potential in the Duke vs. Davidson game tonight, and Mathew Stafford and Knowshawn Moreno leaving Georgia. The first Panthers story was about Thunder and Lightning’s potential (Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams) vs. the Arizona Defense and if Warner can handle the Panthers D. While both of those stories are good, the Junkies would have had this entire week dedicated to Redskins stories, and I would have known Clinton Portis’ shoe size and eating habits by now.

So the question is, why? Why does a team this successful at home have such a small media following? How can a pro team take a back seat to colleges hundreds of miles away? I have no idea. Maybe it is because Charlotte is such a young city. Maybe it is because the Panthers are relatively young franchise. Maybe it is because Charlotte has been burned by a pro team before, I’m looking at you Grandmama. Maybe it is because most people here are from somewhere else (there is actually a Buffalo Bills Bar here; I don’t think there are any of those in Buffalo). Maybe it is because of Charlotte’s southern city made up of transported Yankees identity crisis. But whatever it is, it makes for an incredibly anti-climactic playoff buzz, and I am in serious playoff buzz withdrawal. I never thought I would miss the John Riggins Show.

First Round Results - Week Two Lines

WINNERS:
ARIZONA O
SAN DIEGO U
baltimore U
philly U

Standings:
2-2 : Dav, Eric, Mike, Flip, ChrisM
1-3 : Ian
0-4 : Phil, Matt

TENNESSEE (-3) baltimore 34.5
CAROLINA (-9.5) arizona 48.5

NY GIANTS (-4.5) philadelphia 40.5
PITTSBURGH (-6) san diego 38.5