Jerry Richardson ensured any Panthers success will be overshadowed by scandal

CHARLOTTE — Stop it right now with the sentiment that only sad NFL tears are flowing over Jerry Richardson selling the Carolina Panthers after this season. In some NFL circles, this news is being met with glee. Sure, the man has his NFL pals, but several NFL owners and executives have told me over the years that they find Richardson to be a pompous, arrogant, belittling asshole whom they ignore.

Over the weekend, sexual harassment and racial misconduct charges against Richardson were revealed. That led to Richardson’s announcement of a Panthers sale on Sunday.

He has owned the team since it was founded in 1993.

But suddenly he has decided it’s time to give it up.

His franchise was conducting its own internal investigation. The league decided to jump in and take control of that. How ugly will it turn? Who knows, but Richardson’s swift, dramatic kick indicates he realizes he is in a real-life coffin corner.

Jerry Richardson, 81, did not want the spotlight, the heat, but it found him and changed the Panthers forever.

After Carolina beat the Packers, 31-24, on Sunday they danced around questions about Richardson’s conduct. They fumbled with it as best they could. It was not until later, after all of the Panthers were long gone from the stadium, that the startling news broke that Richardson was selling.

The Panthers are used to dealing with questions about their on-field superiority. What they’re facing is much, much bigger.

Here’s what the game meant:

The Panthers entered this game fuming over the attention Aaron Rodgers was receiving in his first game back from a broken collarbone suffered in Week 6. It was Panthers safety Mike Adams who said after the Panthers had intercepted Rodgers three times that everyone "wanted to make it about Aaron Rodgers but what about us? He just got back. We’ve been here already."

Receiver Devin Funchess took it a step further.

"Totally agree with Mike," Funchess said. "Nobody here cares about Aaron Rodgers. We gonna do what we do each week. Nobody here is scared of anybody in this league. That’s how we’re gonna keep it rocking."

Panthers veteran safety Kurt Coleman was told Adams’ and Funchess’ thoughts and surmised: "At some point people are going to realize that the Carolina Panthers are for real."

They are 10-4, tied with the New Orleans Saints atop the NFC South with the Saints owning the tie-breaker lead due to their season sweep of the Panthers.

But in beating stout Minnesota last week and in deftly handling this hyped Rodgers return, the Panthers are bolstering their profile.

Rodgers threw three touchdown passes along with those three interceptions. He started the game a little off, a tad rusty, a touch high on some throws and too flat and short on others. As the game built, his game cemented. With 1:55 left he had the ball deep in Panthers territory, down by a touchdown, and threw a completion to receiver Geronimo Allison. Allison fumbled at the Carolina 28 on a strip-tackle by Panthers cornerback James Bradberry.

That ruined Rodgers’ fairy tale.

"As I lay in that surgery bed eight weeks ago thinking about this moment, I obviously saw it going differently," Rodgers said.

At 7-7 now, the Packers’ playoff hopes are minuscule.

They call Allison "G-Mo." Packers coach Mike McCarthy gave him an encouraging pat as he trudged to the sideline. Rodgers gave Bradberry credit for his creative play rather than blaming Allison. Packers backup quarterback Brett Hundley said it is a play that "G-Mo will make 99 out of 100 times."

Packers guard Jahri Evans, a 12-year pro, explained: "It’s a hard thing to mimic in practice the exact game situations that Aaron faced. And as the game went on, they started to create different line stunts to keep him in the pocket. But Aaron is one of the greats. He is going to be in the Hall of Fame. There is always going to be a lot of talk about great players in this league. It’s always been that way. I don’t know why that would upset the Panthers. That’s the NFL."

So what, the Panthers chirped.

Cam Newton threw four touchdown passes and played the game in a relaxed, controlled way. He was dominant as a thrower and as a runner. Running back Christian McCaffrey contributed 63 yards rushing and 73 yards receiving. The Panthers defense sacked Rodgers three times.

Now comes larger hurdles.

The depth of the Panthers’ second-fiddle feelings were evident postgame. Newton talked about "another of our chips" in reference to playing for a man like Richardson, and how hard it has been to force people to acknowledge Carolina’s success.

"We control the narrative, as our coach always says," Newton said.

Not quite.

The Panthers narrative will now always be stained by their besieged owner, Jerry Richardson. The Panthers insist their excellence has been shrouded. That seems like a quaint problem now. None of it compares to their clouds and shadows lurking ahead.

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