The Carolina Panthers Owner/Founder Jerry Richardson announced yesterday that general manager Dave Gettleman has been cut from the organization after being the general manager since 2013.
“After much thought and a long evaluation of our football operations, I have decided to relieve Dave Gettleman of his duties as general manager,” Richardson said. “I want to thank Dave for the role he played in our success over the past four seasons. While the timing of this decision is not ideal, a change is needed.”
A couple of the best players to ever play for the Panthers organization (who were also fan favorites) were both cut from the team in a rather ugly fashion back in 2014 by Dave Gettleman. Although his decisions were unpopular, many experts agreed they were necessary, but could have been handled differently.
Now that Gettleman himself was let go in a similarly cold manner, his former casualties were quick to share their opinions via Twitter.
DeAngelo Williams got straight to the point;
I want to publicly say @Panthers is off my list of teams I won't play for due to the firing of that snake Dave gettleman! 😎😎👌🏽✊🏽
— DeAngelo Williams (@DeAngeloRB) July 17, 2017
The always vocal and usually emotional Steve Smith had a much more colorful reaction;
Its Okay! Dave I know how you feel….. #agent89🕵🏼 #stevesmithsr pic.twitter.com/czlwuG92Ck
— Steve Smith Sr (@89SteveSmith) July 17, 2017
Now that Gettleman is officially out of the organization, could the Panther’s relationship with Steve Smith and DeAngelo Williams begin to heal? Panther fans have even created a petition to try to bring Steve Smith back to the Panthers for one last season.
What are your thoughts about cutting Gettleman?
Should we bring Smith or Williams back?