news-record.com

CHARLOTTE -- Now comes the reckoning.

The economics of losing is harder on those not accustomed to it, and the shocking dismantling of the 2008-09 Carolina Panthers has shaken this city right down to its banking core. In a troubling display of profit-taking affecting those in the city's two current pastimes -- money and football -- it's every man for himself.

Julius Peppers, who was ordained the leader of the entire team by owner Jerry Richardson himself, has decided he doesn't want to lead the Panthers anywhere. Peppers has announced he will take the money and run. The fallout has been stunning.

Peppers didn't just snub Richardson and the Panthers, he snubbed the coaches and the city and even the media, the last estate not really an issue here. The most coddled player in the history of the team said, in effect, he was being held back by us North Carolina rubes and he will take his talents where they can be realized.

Then came the aftershocks. Mike Trgovac and four other defensive assistant coaches have left in recent days, and all of a sudden we're looking at half a football team. The missing half is the one John Fox built himself, the one Richardson anointed the soul of the team, the one that gave up about 400 yards a game over the last half of the season.

While everyone here was screaming about Jake Delhomme and greedy bankers, the Panthers woke up Friday morning with their most valuable assets trickling out of town. In the long, dark days since the Carolina Panthers exited the NFL playoffs, stunning the football fans banking on a Super Bowl run in the midst of the financial crisis, the bottom line was being drawn. Panthers economists everywhere wanted someone to pay. And they wanted it to be Delhomme.

The quarterback fumbled and threw five interceptions in the team's final game. Delhomme took full responsibility for the 33-13 loss to Arizona, and Fox did his best to deflect some of the criticism.

"He had a bad game," Fox said. "He's not a bad quarterback."

That's certainly true, and it's remarkable that we're talking about the very face of the team at just the wrong moment for the franchise. The outcome, however, landed heavily on a fan following that had finally bought in to the Panthers and their conservative business plan. It was the last thing the football people needed.

Carolina was basically at the end of a two-year run of trying to sign Peppers and offensive lineman Jordan Gross to long-term deals. That it also came at the end of a season that went perfectly to script until the Saturday disaster, threatened to wash away the memory of what might have been the best Panthers team we've ever seen.

And then came the reckoning. Of the nine unrestricted free agents on the roster, the two big names stood out. Backup lineman Geoff Hangartner and long-snapper Jason Kyle are the only others with any market value, thus the Panthers could afford to spend what it took to keep their best pass-rusher and their best offensive lineman.

That was to be the plan for a franchise that basically stood pat for the past couple of seasons, building through the draft and plucking a free agent here and there to plug holes. Carolina, as an organization, liked where it stood three weeks ago.

Now there's rampant talk of drafting a quarterback. Carolina has no first-round pick, and only a trade of Peppers would procure one (or two). There's talk of bringing in a free agent from a list of such quarterbacks as Kurt Warner, Kerry Collins and Matt Cassell, something only the dumping of contracts could make possible.

There's talk of drafting a project quarterback late in the draft, though it would seem the Panthers already have a stable of them. Before the Saturday loss, it seemed likely Carolina would try to sign Peppers and Gross to long-term deals, get rid of cornerback Ken Lucas and go shopping with house money. The league will raise the salary cap by about 6 percent next season, giving Carolina plenty of flexibility if it wanted to keep Delhomme for his final season under contract, "franchise" Peppers for $17 million for one season or "franchise" Gross again for less than half that.

The loss to Arizona changed everything. While the team was running the numbers all year trying to get Peppers signed (an earlier offer came back unsigned) and anticipating an offseason with only the two major contract issues, they now have a potential public relations disaster in addition to vacancies at every defensive coaching position except one.

Carolina is basically committed to its roster, having traded away its first-round pick last year to draft Jeff Otah, so without an impact college player coming in, the Panthers had hoped to do as little as possible to a team they believed was built for a two- or three-year run. Now they have to hire an entire defensive staff while running the numbers for Peppers and Gross and study for a draft they hadn't counted on being crucial.

Now it's more than crucial with gaping holes on defense and the great decision looming about what to do with Delhomme.

This was a great season that ended dramatically, a season that started with a mandate -- to win. The Panthers did. They won big. Then they lost big on a national stage, prompting an expected outcry from the faithful and a reaction from within they never imagined.

Richardson is on the waiting list for a heart transplant, and no one saw any need to involve the owner in what should've been routine housecleaning after the season. He'd built this particular version of the Panthers in his own image, finally getting the pieces together for the team he'd always dreamed of -- a conservative organization with an explosive offense built around running and an aggressive defense built by Fox and around Peppers.

What should've been a peaceful transition from one season to the next has become serious business with a lot of moving parts. Jobs and careers suddenly are at stake. Reputations are on the line, and money is at the core of everything. The business of Charlotte has always been business. And football has become the respite.

Now the Panthers are embroiled in controversy, headed into a spring of discontent swirling around salary-cap talk and franchise tags and contracts and agents. Carolina will go into this summer not having nearly as much fun as it thought it would, and no one knows what the team will look like next fall.

Everyone is praying Delhomme doesn't throw an interception in the first preseason game. That's when the out-of-work bankers will start screaming, and then things will really get ugly.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com