Tuesday was a strange day for the Panthers for a variety of reasons.
A strange little twist that was largely overlooked occurred right at the beginning of owner David Tepper’s press conference regarding the firing of coach Frank Reich. At some point he said: “I have great respect for Frank Reich, he is a great man.”
The crazy part comes from the way Tepper pronounced Reich’s name. Tepper said it phonetically, with a “ch” sound at the end.
In his 30-plus years in the NFL’s collective consciousness, no one has ever said Reich’s name like that. There has never been a time when he has chosen this pronunciation as his preferred pronunciation. I had never heard anyone say that before.
Until yesterday, a day after Tepper Reich played 11 games in his first season as the team’s coach.
It was either coincidence or intentional. The fact that Tepper did it twice during the press conference suggests it wasn’t a coincidence — unless it’s a chronic, bizarre mental block that prevents him from pronouncing certain names correctly.
If it’s intentional, that’s as petty as it gets. And it’s as disrespectful as it gets.
And it’s a testament to the “I’ll do whatever I want” attitude that many multi-billionaires bring to everything they do.
That’s another reason why whoever takes this job would be better off asking for hazard pay and an ironclad contract with no loopholes or possibility of not having to owe the trainer every dollar if he inevitably gets fired by the “extremely patient” owner , who has made it clear that he will be involved in every major decision and that he reserves the right to veto anyone in the football operations department if he sees fit.
Even then, life is too short to waste it working for Tepper.