Wow. Mark and Jon-Jon Richardson are out of their daddy’s business. If anyone saw that coming, let me know.
At the same time, it has been widely understood that the brothers were regarded as the weak links of the franchise. We certainly were never very impressed with their talents and abilities here. Still, for these resignations to come less than a week before the start of a vital season for the Panthers — something is bad wrong, someplace. You just don’t do that. Ever.
Like I said the other day, the Panthers had to make a move for defensive help. Was there a disagreement between Marty Hurney and the brothers over what to do? Cannot help but notice that a trade for a DT was announced at Cleveland’s press conference today. And it is a trade for a guy, Louis Leonard, who just had a run in with an assistant coach. Does not sound like a typical Panther move, does it?
Did Marty make the deal on his own, the brothers freak, and the Big Cat side with Marty rather than his sons? Just a total guess, here, but we need a lot more info from Panthers HQ on what the hell is going on before we can put this remotely behind us. We been told over and over these past 15 years that the Richardson model was the Rooneys. Well, the Steeler front-office is still full of Rooneys 75 years after Art founded the team.
The Steeler model is no more.
Update: Current S-PIN scribe and former Uptown paper Panthers writer Yaz-man calls the news “bizarre.” Yep, it is that.
Update II: Yaz now adds that Mark Richardson is off of the NFL competition committee with his resignation as team president. The Big Cat surely loved having a man “in the room” when the NFL heavyweights sat down. Another odd development which requirements some facts to explain.
