CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ After 25 seasons of Carolina Panther football, here's a question that inspires a lot of debate: Who's the team's best player of all time?
I have my opinion, which I'll share in a minute. You have yours, and thanks to the 1,451 of you who voted in a quick poll I took Friday about this issue.
If you are active on Twitter, you may know that the Panthers' official Twitter account has taken some heat for a tweet that addressed this very same question.
June 17, the Panthers' account asked fans to "Choose your GOAT" _ slang for "Greatest Of All Time" _ and gave fans three choices: Julius Peppers, Luke Kuechly and Steve Smith.
See the problem?
Cam Newton _ the 2015 NFL MVP for Carolina and now a quarterback looking for a job after the Panthers fired him in March _ wasn't listed as a potential choice. That resulted in hundreds of replies from fans ripping the team for leaving Newton out of the poll.
Given the sports world's slow news trickle in these COVID-19 days, the Panthers' poll also ended up getting criticized on a number of national sports TV talk shows. On "Pardon The Interruption," ESPN's Michael Wilbon said: "This is political! You can't have this! .... The poll comes off as completely fraudulent!"
Steven Drummond, the Panthers' vice president of communications and external affairs, characterized the team's tweet as "clumsy" in our interview. Although Drummond didn't write the tweet _ that was done by a member of the team's social media staff _ he took responsibility for it since the team's Twitter account falls under his umbrella.
"We should have been more thoughtful," Drummond said. "Obviously we meant no disrespect to Cam Newton. That poll was intended to be restricted to retired players, but that wasn't made clear in the original tweet."
I get that. People make mistakes all the time. I certainly have done so on social media. I honestly don't see a grand conspiracy on this one from the Panthers. And I give the team some credit for not simply deleting the tweet and pretending like it never happened.
It's also true that Newton hasn't found a new employer in the three months since the Panthers released him after nine seasons and signed Teddy Bridgewater to replace him. The Panthers could have fired Newton earlier _ giving him a better chance to find another job, presumably _ but didn't. Feelings are still raw on all sides.
