When the Bottom Drops Out

For the second time during the past seven days I really do feel like crying. I never really had to suffer the bite of a close friend moving away during my youth, but I can only imagine that this is what it feels like. That solid thing in your life, gone.

As usual I fear I'm being far too dramatic; I mean there are plenty plenty of real problems out there, and yet, this mixture of anguish and anger I'm feeling is very real to me, I can't help it. Perhaps a more meaningful topic to write about would be why a professional sports team can have such a devastating impact on my emotional well-being, for yes, this post is about football, but right now, I don't care. Not about that or about how much time I'm wasting coping by writing this piece. All I care about is how much this hurts, and how little sense it makes.

Starting last Friday, the Carolina Panthers began cleaning house. Most of the players who have defined their organization to me and the rest of the world for the better part of the last decade have, for a variety of reasons, been let go. For several of the key players, I had seen it coming from a long way off, and though it hurt, I had had ample time to accept the possibility.

When All-decade DE Julius Peppers signed with the Bears last week, I was actually sort of glad. He clearly didn't care that much about staying in Carolina, he just wanted a pay-day, and on the downside of his career it wasn't worth mortgaging the team's future to see an apathetic guy end his playing days there. So, I was ready to bid him adieu, and was just happy he didn't sign with the Patriots or Cowboys. It would have been nice to at least get something in return, but hey, at least the drama was gone.

When they cut long-time QB and face of the '03 Super Bowl team Jake Delhomme, I would be lying if I said I wasn't surprised. For years Panthers fans have complained that our owner, GM, and coach are far too loyal, sticking with past-their-prime veterans when more qualified candidates are waiting in the wings. Coach John Fox's inability to bench Jake during his cold-streak last year until a broken finger forced him out was the perfect example of this. In all honesty, I half-expected for Fox to stubbornly force Jake back into the starting job next year despite the late-season bloom of backup Matt Moore. At worst, due to Jake's lengthy expensive contract, I figured we'd keep him around for a training camp competition with Moore or as Moore's fiery experienced back-up. I didn't expect him to be flat out cut.

I do like Jake, quite a bit, but he was never fantastic, and never one of my favorites, and it really did look like his mojo had evaporated last year. Even if he just had an off year, like Kurt Warner five years ago, the fact remains that Jake was never Kurt Warner in the first place, and he's not getting younger. So, from a football standpoint, I could understand the rationale somewhat, though paying $13 million to tell your locker room leader to get lost, rather than paying essentially the same money to keep him as an insurance policy, still seems quite odd. Once more though, rumors of this had been swirling for sometime, so it wasn't a complete shock, but you don't see your record holding good-natured everyman QB leave town without feeling a deep sting. And this too marked the end of an era, the end of me hoping the core of our Super Bowl team could keep it together long enough to make one more run. In this sense, it was very sad. I appreciated how much John Fox and GM Marty Hurney clearly cared for Jake, as they both choked up at the press conference, and the tears were streaming down my cheeks, matching Jake's as I watched him sob his way through his own interview; for both of us it was a mixture of happy memories and sad realizations. It made me angry all last year how viciously Panthers fans were speaking about Jake, turning their backs on him after one partially bad year, following seven successful ones. I'll remember Jake at his best: huge smile on his face, uncoordinatedly leaping up and down, yelling and congratulating his teammates after a good play.

Along with Jake there were a few other puzzling moves. We cut both of our starting defensive tackles, and let a third one leave as an unrestricted free agent. Neither of them had been with the team for an especially long time, but long enough for me to grow fond of them and appreciate their solid play. They both had slightly high contracts, but still, what were we thinking, leaving ourselves with no depth whatsoever? It just seemed stupid, especially going into an uncapped year.

All of this though, I was able to swallow, if a little nervously, and if we resigned my favorite player, aging receiver Muhsin Muhammad, nearly all would be forgiven. What scare(s)(d) me though is how unlikely that seemed in light of the apparent youth movement the front office was undertaking.

One article I read provided me some bittersweet comfort through all of this. It noted how, now that Delhomme and Peppers were gone for sure, and Muhammad and CB Dante Wesley were free agents, the number of Super Bowl team members could very likely shrink from 8 to 4. The four remaining were kicker John Kasay, LT Jordan Gross, WR Steve Smith, and FB Brad Hoover. While the fact that so many were leaving was still alarming, reading the names of each of the four remaining provided me with a little more and a little more comfort. I could still hold on to each of these and embrace them, and they were all key players and guys I liked, especially Brad Hoover. Even if we don't resign Muhammad, I thought, at least Brad Hoover is still around.

You probably haven't heard of him, but I've always loved Brad Hoover, from the day as a rookie in 2000 I watched as he, filling in as our feature running back in his first career start, rushed for over 100 yards against Green Bay on Monday Night Football to improve our record from 5-7 to 6-7, salvaging our dwindling playoff hopes, in the only Panthers game I got to watch that season--and no, I didn't have to look any of that up. From then all the way up to the Sunday Night Game this past season when he scored his first touchdown in years, helping the Panthers pummel Brett Favre and the Vikings, Brad Hoover was the Carolina Panthers, and vice-versa.

Hoover is the stuff fan favorites are made of. He was a hard-nosed hometown boy, hailing out of Western Carolina University, who made the Panthers roster as an undrafted free-agent. Despite coming in as a running back, he adapted to play an unglamorous position in fullback. He has been referred to as the epitome of the "lunch-pail athlete;" he gave his all every game, never complained, was adored by the media, his teammates, and his fans, and never got greedy, scheduled to make $900,000 this coming season, a paltry sum for any ten year NFL starter.

This past season, although getting a little older at 32, and missing a couple games with injury, Hoover showed he still had plenty of gas in the tank. In fact, he became the first fullback in NFL history to block for two 1100 yard rushers in one season, scored his first two touchdowns in years, and had more carries for more yards than any season in recent memory. To round out his diversity, he even ran it out of the Wildcat a few times. What other fullback do you know who can claim that?
And yet, in spite of it all, the cheap contract, the continued value, the locker-room chemistry, and the fan favorite status, Hoover was released earlier this week. It was reported that he too likely would have been released last week with the bevy of other aging veterans, but he was abroad at the time, doing charity work for the NFL.

I thought my roommate was playing a cruel trick on me when he notified me of the move, he knew how much I loved Hoover (primarily due to my insistence to give him 50% of my carries when playing in Madden). When I realized he was telling the truth, I quickly battled back my tear-ducts, opting instead to mask my sorrow with equally justified rage. Why? Why? Please, just someone tell me why.

Don't give me that, "it's the nature of the business" line, as so many articles attempted to do, calling the move, as one piece did, "sad" but "inevitable," and attributing it to the nature of the cut-throat NFL. If this move were done for financial reasons, the Panther's team economist needs to retake some courses. It's as simple as realizing that fans are not robots.

Let me apply my Joe Mauer argument here. Joe Mauer is entering his last year under contract with the Twins. Like Hoover, Mauer is a fan favorite, though one who happens to be a superstar, and fans around the state are begging the Twins front office to offer him whatever kind of money he wants to sign him to an extension. The Twins have been notoriously stingy in the past and the worry is that they will low-ball Mauer and push him to sign some mega-deal with the Red Sox or Yankees. What the Twins front-office doesn't seem to realize though is that, no matter how much money Mauer requires to keep him in a Twins uniform, it will be worth it, because you can never replace the jersey sales, the ticket sales, and the media attention, that Mauer brings with him. He is worth more than just his on the field play, his mere presence will pay back the Twins two-fold.

Certainly Hoover's situation is on a different scale than Mauer's, but the same principles apply. Hoover was still under contract for one more year at the aforementioned sub-million dollar level, and the "nature of business" argument assumes that the Panthers parted ways with Hoover to save themselves that relatively small chunk of change. As mentioned though, Hoover was adored by Carolina fans, and though he didn't make that much money, the backlash sparked by his unceremonious removal very well could cost the team more than the amount they'd save by cutting him, especially for a team like Carolina. Hoover's jersey was one of the most popular ones worn by Panthers fans, and they've already been marked down, along with Peppers' and Delhomme's, 40% on the team website. More than that though, this move will likely cost the team some season-ticket sales, and even some fans.

You see, the Panthers franchise, as discussed before, has always been known during their short tenure in the league to date for their unfailing class and loyalty. Most fans appreciated this, even if they thought it was taken to a fault at points, such as with Delhomme last season. They were even lauded for the touching way they dealt with Delhomme's departure at the press-conference last week. Now, in just a matter of days, they've done a complete 180; the years spent building that reputation have essentially been thrown out the window, the departure of Jake and the others is seen in a new light, and the fans are not happy. Some are even threatening to sell their season tickets over this or boycott the team. If I hadn't already done the same thing in protest against the Timberwolves this year, I might very well be joining them.

Here are some tell tale comments from articles revealing Hoover's release:

“This is the biggest Bonehead move the Panthers have ever made! The thing that separated our team from others in the NFL was always class! Now, with this move, the front office has proven that they don't have any! Don't have any football brains either.”

“Wow… I’m worried I’m going to get a letter in the mail saying I’ve been cut as a fan.”

As I said before, fans are not robots: they root for players, not jerseys, and sometimes they would prefer to see a slightly decreased performance on the field in favor of a marginally better performance by an unknown commodity, which is, at best, what the Panthers will be getting this year. Last year the Panthers drafted a fullback, Tony Fiammetta, whom most instantly assummed would be Hoover's eventual replacement. As expected, Hoover remained the starter, as the raw Fiammetta watched on and gained a bit of experience. In his limited appearances however, Fiammetta failed to impress, and there was no good reason to assume he was ready to take over the role with the same effectiveness as Hoover full time yet. Besides that, Hoover did only have one more year on his contract, and it was widely rumored he would retire upon its completion. Think about that, one more year at 900k, that's likely all it would have taken to give Hoover another season to groom his replacement and let the organization, his teammates, and the fans, give him a wonderful send off into retirement. So much for class. Instead we are left with these heart-wrenching quotes from Hoover himself:

"I never wanted to leave Carolina, my intention was to play my whole career here."

"Today is a very hard day in my life because I’ve been with one organization, one team, for such a long time… If I could’ve written my script, I would’ve retired as a Panther"

Even his teammates are in a tizzy, another factor that could prevent attractive players from coming here in the future and impact the chemistry and actual play of the team.

Panthers star running back Jonathan Stewart said he and counterpart Deangelo Williams were "Super-sad" about Hoover leaving and thought he was snubbed for the Pro-Bowl last year.

Safety Chris Harris was the one who actually broke the news of Hoover's release, sending out a twitter message lambasting the Panthers for the move.

So once more, I must ask why, just why? You've hurt your reputation and your fan base, and in-turn likely your pocket-book, you've hurt your on-field play, and you've hurt your locker-room, all in one deft swoop. Well done Carolina. You should be ashamed of yourselves. I mean, I knew his days were coming to a close, one journalist even suggested during the season that he might retire before next season, and I kept that in mind while savoring every moment of his performance during the Vikings game this last season. What hurts so much more though is the despicable way they removed Hoover, robbing him of his intended retirement.

May Hoover find happiness where and when ever he chooses to end his career. That's much more than I can wish to the Panther's front office at the moment. The only potential silver linings I can see coming from this are that the organization wishes to make amends to the fans, and resigns Muhammad, or in the name of their new youth movement they draft Minnesota WR Eric Decker. But even then, not Fiammetta, not Decker, and not even Muhammad, will ever be able to replace Brad Hoover. What I'd give to hear the crowd chanting "HOOOOV" just once more...