Johnson staying in Detroit

[PantherFanInPhilly]

Wow, I did NOT see this happening.  Who's leading the charge on the Payton to Panthers rumors on Twitter?  

[MasterAwesome]

You guys know Ben Johnson interviewed for other head coach vacancies too, right?  It's pretty unlikely that his decision to stay with Detroit (i.e. not pursue any head coach opportunities with any team) was tied to whether or not we favor Payton.  Unless coaching the Panthers specifically is his dream job and he wouldn't want to coach any other team, in which case he probably wouldn't be taking all these other interviews.

[Gerry Green]

11 hours ago, tukafan21 said:

As someone who has lived in Michigan my entire life outside of being in Arizona for college, I can say with 100% confidence that this post was made by someone who has zero clue about Detroit and the surrounding areas.

First of all, Downtown Detroit has actually gotten really nice in the last 10 years, to where there are very expensive and nice places to live in downtown proper, it's once you go outside of that area to where it gets sketchy.

But beyond that, the suburbs are only a 20ish minute drive away for a nice comfortable living, and if you go a further 10-20 minutes further north than that, you get into multi million dollar homes on sprawling pieces of land.

Just saying

How the heck did you become a Panther fan? I spent 37 years in Alpena, and Flint. Moved to SC in 88. When we got the Panthers, I was excited to be getting in on the ground floor of a brand-new franchise. I still follow the lions, but the Panthers are my team now. 

 

Oh, and go Green.

[NorthTryon]

16 hours ago, Jesse said:

This tells me he wasn’t ready mentally for a head coach job or all in. Glad he figured it out now before we interviewed him. 

Exactly what it is and everybody is trying to twist it into something else. I wish more of these coordinators understood where they were at mentally with readiness. There are too many young guys getting jobs they don't deserve and it is ruining careers. 

[Sgt Schultz]

1 hour ago, NorthTryon said:

Exactly what it is and everybody is trying to twist it into something else. I wish more of these coordinators understood where they were at mentally with readiness. There are too many young guys getting jobs they don't deserve and it is ruining careers. 

I have been reading this entire thread and thinking perhaps he feels he is just not ready.  If so, I have a lot of respect for the guy, and assuming he does become a head coach someday, he will probably be better for it.

If his assessment about something special happening with the Lions is true, it's not like interest will get lower.

[tukafan21]

3 hours ago, Gerry Green said:

How the heck did you become a Panther fan? I spent 37 years in Alpena, and Flint. Moved to SC in 88. When we got the Panthers, I was excited to be getting in on the ground floor of a brand-new franchise. I still follow the lions, but the Panthers are my team now. 

 

Oh, and go Green.

Was my user name not a hint to you there? lol

The year before we came into the league, my dad took me to the HOF (I was like 6 or 7) and I thought the Panthers had a cool logo so he bought me a mini helmet, so I kinda followed them that first year a little bit (as much as a kid that age could pre-internet days haha).  

I was a die hard Michigan football fan at the time and Biakabutuka was my favorite player, so once we drafted him going into that second season, I was hooked, almost 30 years later and all my friends still like to give me crap about liking a team because of their logo and one player lol.  But at this point, I like to point out how putting up with this franchise for this long without a single back to back winning season streak, makes all that null and void and I've earned the right to be a die hard fan of "such a random team"

[tukafan21]

4 hours ago, thefuzz said:

From someone who grew up at, and lives at the beach in NC....I couldn't imagine ever living in that part of the country...no matter how expensive the homes are.

That said....I'd say the same thing about most any "mega city" throughout the nation.

Again, a post by someone who has zero idea about the Metro Detroit area.

Yea, Detroit proper is a "mega city" but the suburbs couldn't be any further from that.  And while it's not the  beach with the ocean, that nice part of town that he'd live in, almost assuredly he'd either live on the water or be just down the street from it.

There are TONS of lakes in that area about 30-40 minutes north of the city, for example, this was Stafford's home when he was with the Lions, right on the water.

 

[DeAngelo Beason]

5 hours ago, MHS831 said:

But if they allowed the Panthers to talk to him, it seems that the compensation is all that is left to discuss. Maybe the Panthers get the "NFC South" rate.

 

Wouldn't it be the most "Saints thing" ever to allow us to interview him and then tell us to fug off though?

[TheSpecialJuan]

1 hour ago, tukafan21 said:

Again, a post by someone who has zero idea about the Metro Detroit area.

Yea, Detroit proper is a "mega city" but the suburbs couldn't be any further from that.  And while it's not the  beach with the ocean, that nice part of town that he'd live in, almost assuredly he'd either live on the water or be just down the street from it.

There are TONS of lakes in that area about 30-40 minutes north of the city, for example, this was Stafford's home when he was with the Lions, right on the water.

 

I hate it 

[Move the Panthers to Raleigh]

38 minutes ago, DeAngelo Beason said:

Wouldn't it be the most "Saints thing" ever to allow us to interview him and then tell us to fug off though?

That would actually be hilarious of them, and you would have to give them credit for peak rival behavior 

[Gerry Green]

1 hour ago, tukafan21 said:

Was my user name not a hint to you there? lol

The year before we came into the league, my dad took me to the HOF (I was like 6 or 7) and I thought the Panthers had a cool logo so he bought me a mini helmet, so I kinda followed them that first year a little bit (as much as a kid that age could pre-internet days haha).  

I was a die hard Michigan football fan at the time and Biakabutuka was my favorite player, so once we drafted him going into that second season, I was hooked, almost 30 years later and all my friends still like to give me crap about liking a team because of their logo and one player lol.  But at this point, I like to point out how putting up with this franchise for this long without a single back to back winning season streak, makes all that null and void and I've earned the right to be a die hard fan of "such a random team"

 

I had that thought in the back of my mind. But like most things um related. They fade from memory rather quickly. Although I will say. Timmy had his moments as a Panther. Too bad for injuries. And I am still having trouble with Hutchinson. lol DROY or not, he's still the enemy. 

Edited January 18, 2023 by Gerry Green

[tukafan21]

1 minute ago, Gerry Green said:

 

I had that thought in the back of my mind. But like most things um related. They fade from memory rather quickly. Although I will say. Timmy had his moments as a Panther. Too bad for injuries. And I am still having trouble with Hutchinson. lol DROY or not, he's still the enemy. lol

almost all of my friends are Spartans, they struggled with Hutch early in the year, but they've come around since then on him.

I might be the only person in the world who still regularly wears an authentic Biakabutuka Panthers jersey for games.  When I wear it to the bar here it definitely gets a lot of comments from Michigan fans.

My favorite was a few years back when the Panthers were in town I wore it when I went to the game, which in Detroit is always a questionable decision to wear an opposing team's jersey.  Game was in the winter so was wearing a coat into the game, as we were getting to our seats a guy in the row behind us saw me in my Panthers gear and immediately started chirping.

Then I took my coat off, he saw the name on the back and couldn't stop laughing as I guess he was a Michigan guy.  It made the game pretty enjoyable with him from then on, instead of the standard Detroit fans bashing on the away fans, we had some fun back and forth banter.

[Gerry Green]

3 minutes ago, tukafan21 said:

almost all of my friends are Spartans, they struggled with Hutch early in the year, but they've come around since then on him.

I might be the only person in the world who still regularly wears an authentic Biakabutuka Panthers jersey for games.  When I wear it to the bar here it definitely gets a lot of comments from Michigan fans.

My favorite was a few years back when the Panthers were in town I wore it when I went to the game, which in Detroit is always a questionable decision to wear an opposing team's jersey.  Game was in the winter so was wearing a coat into the game, as we were getting to our seats a guy in the row behind us saw me in my Panthers gear and immediately started chirping.

Then I took my coat off, he saw the name on the back and couldn't stop laughing as I guess he was a Michigan guy.  It made the game pretty enjoyable with him from then on, instead of the standard Detroit fans bashing on the away fans, we had some fun back and forth banter.

 

Been a Lions fan for a looong time. This is the first time I can remember being excited at the end of the season. 

 

Let's hope the Panthers get as lucky with our next coach.

[Mr. Scot]