Franchise Moments: 
Carolina Panthers' Defining Moment of the Past Decade
Jerry Richardson founded the Panthers in 1993 and owned them for every year of their existence until 2018. That's the only ownership the franchise had ever known -- through two Super Bowl runs, through Cam Newton's MVP season, through all of it. Then a Sports Illustrated report in December 2017 detailed allegations of harassment and use of a racial slur inside the organization, and within months Richardson was out.
David Tepper bought the team in 2018. Nothing about the decade since happened without that sale.
Panthers' Franchise Defining Moment of the Last 10 Years
The moment: David Tepper's purchase of the Panthers, completed in 2018 for a then-record $2.2 billion.
It ended the Richardson era outright. The NFL's investigation substantiated the allegations against him and fined him $2.75 million. Richardson chose to sell rather than fight it. Carolina had a new owner for the first time in its history, and the franchise's last decade has essentially been a story about learning to live with that change.
Tepper, a hedge fund billionaire who previously was a Steelers investor, walked into an organization that had just gone through a public scandal and needed stability. He didn't provide much of it early on.
Ron Rivera, Carolina's head coach since 2011, was fired in December 2019. Tepper's own hire, Matt Rhule, lasted less than three full seasons before getting fired at 1-4 in October 2022. Frank Reich came next and didn't even make it a full year -- gone after 11 games and a 1-10 start in November 2023. Three head coaches fired inside four seasons, on top of a general manager change, is not what stability looks like.
The Rough Start: Four Coaches, One Drink and a Lot of Losing
The losing was bad enough on its own. Carolina finished last in the NFC South in four of Tepper's first six seasons and went 2-15 in 2023, the worst record in the league that year. Then came the moment that turned Tepper himself into the story: during a Week 17 loss to Jacksonville in December 2023, he was caught on video throwing his drink at Jaguars fans after they taunted him. The NFL fined him $300,000. Tepper apologized and called it "assinine," which, fair.
By the end of 2023, the Panthers had spent five years burning through coaches, missing the NFL playoffs every season, and dealing with an owner whose most memorable moment was throwing a drink into the stands. None of that inspired much confidence heading into the Bryce Young era.
Bryce Young, a Division Title and Signs of a Turnaround
Carolina took Young No. 1 overall in the 2023 draft, and his rookie year did nothing to quiet the doubts. He struggled behind a shaky offensive line, the team went 2-15, and by the start of 2024 he'd been benched for Andy Dalton after an 0-2 start under new coach Dave Canales. Young got his job back a few weeks later and started playing markedly better football down the stretch.
That improvement carried into 2025.
Young set a franchise single-game passing record in November, throwing for 448 yards and three touchdowns against Atlanta, and Carolina rode a strong finish to the NFC South title -- though they were an 8-9 division-winning team, the fifth in NFL history to claim a division with a losing record. The Panthers then lost a thrilling 34-31 Wild Card shootout to the Rams, but a team that had been the league's laughingstock two years earlier was in the playoffs with its franchise quarterback playing like one.
None of it happens on the Richardson timeline. Whatever else gets said about how Tepper has run this team -- and plenty has been said -- the 2018 sale is still the hinge everything since turns on. Carolina spent five rough years finding that out the hard way. It might finally be starting to pay off.
More About The Campaign
This piece is part of RotoWire's NFL Franchise Defining Moments series, breaking down the single moment from the last decade that most shaped where each of the league's 32 franchises stands today.
