CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – It looks like some of the Panthers players are in agreement with a portion of the team’s fanbase over ownership commitment concerns.
In the annual NFL Player’s Association individual team report cards, the Panthers ranked 17th out of the 32 NFL teams with the biggest concern being owner David Tepper’s commitment to improving facilities and specifically citing the use of turf over natural grass in 2021. They ranked 12th out of all clubs in last year’s report.
100 percent of the player responses this year stated that they’d prefer to play on grass and that “it is a major frustration within the locker room feeling like they are being forced to play on a surface that is not as safe, simply because it is cheaper to maintain.”
The biggest improvement year-over-year has been upgrades to the cafeteria including a new chef and renovations, according to the report.
A further breakdown revealed more concern, and perhaps distrust, between the players and ownership. Ownership was given a D grade, the fifth lowest grade distributed this year. It was the lowest-graded category out of every category players had to choose from. The categories include a wide range of areas including treatment of families (B) to team travel (B-) to the training staff (A-).
Among some of the qualms the players have in the annual report among the various categories are:
- A few players would like their family members to be able to get pregame sideline passes or be seated in better locations with other player families
- Only 59% of players feel they have enough cold tub space (29th overall)
The Panthers finished the season with a league-worst 2-15 record, fired its coach and GM, and head into the NFL Draft with no first-round pick having traded it away in the DJ Moore deal.