Steve Reed no longer covering Panthers.

[CatMan72]

Suprised Gantt didn't get the job with the AP.

[Cyberjag]

Did anyone ever find out why Gantt was removed from the Panthers beat?

[CatMan72]

Did anyone ever find out why Gantt was removed from the Panthers beat?

I don't think anybody knows for sure, but I'm guessing he must have done something to piss off the Panthers FO.

Gantt could be negative at times, maybe they just wanted to start of the Rivera era without a beat writer that had a tendancy to put a negative spin on things.

[Fiz]

It's a travesty that Tom Sorensen hasn't been offered the same opportunities.

[dbulls874]

Did anyone ever find out why Gantt was removed from the Panthers beat?

Yea. The Herald stopped covering the Panthers to make ends meet, and instead of laying Gantt off, they shifted him to Winthrop University. Now they get their Panthers coverage from the Charlotte Observer, rather than the other way around. They are sister papers, and since their coverage was being provided by both Gantt and Person, the guy whose salary and expenses were being assumed by the budget of the big paper was kept and the guy whose salary and expenses were on the little paper's books was reassigned.

At least that's my understanding. Feel free to correct.

[Cyberjag]

Yea. The Herald stopped covering the Panthers to make ends meet, and instead of laying Gantt off, they shifted him to Winthrop University. Now they get their Panthers coverage from the Charlotte Observer, rather than the other way around. They are sister papers, and since their coverage was being provided by both Gantt and Person, the guy whose salary and expenses were being assumed by the budget of the big paper was kept and the guy whose salary and expenses were on the little paper's books was reassigned.

At least that's my understanding. Feel free to correct.

One post, huh? Hi Darin!

And I think this explanation makes more sense than just about any other I've heard.

[CatMan72]

Yea. The Herald stopped covering the Panthers to make ends meet, and instead of laying Gantt off, they shifted him to Winthrop University. Now they get their Panthers coverage from the Charlotte Observer, rather than the other way around. They are sister papers, and since their coverage was being provided by both Gantt and Person, the guy whose salary and expenses were being assumed by the budget of the big paper was kept and the guy whose salary and expenses were on the little paper's books was reassigned.

At least that's my understanding. Feel free to correct.

Makes sense, forgot Gantt was "on loan" from the Gaston Gazette.

Edit: sorry mean Rock Hill Herald... getting Gantt and Reed confused.

[countryboi]

at least he didn't get demoted to permanent horseshit detail like gantt.....sounds like a good gig

[dbulls874]

One post, huh? Hi Darin!

And I think this explanation makes more sense than just about any other I've heard.

Hah. not Darin...just a long-time Panthers fan who seldom feels the need to post. but I'm also an ex-journalist, so I can link you here, where the rest of Darin's fellow sports writers tried to figure out why the reassignment happened:

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/index.php/topic,83155.0.html

(FYI, I am the guy who started that thread, so anything I say there is simply an assumption, just like what I wrote here. But you'll notice Gantt himself chimes in on the thread).

[The Saltman]

It's a travesty that Tom Sorensen hasn't been offered the same opportunities.

lol

[MGH1989]

This sucks, he wasn't the best, but all the half decent beat guys in Gantt and Reed are gone now. So I gotta rely on fuging Joseph Person now?

[Mr. Scot]

2011: Year of the Reassignment

[dbulls874]

This sucks, he wasn't the best, but all the half decent beat guys in Gantt and Reed are gone now. So I gotta rely on fuging Joseph Person now?

If Person is still the guy in the locker room and press room getting quotes, that's fine...All that info is typically homogenous anyway, thanks to the NFL's notoriously restrictive access policies. Gantt and Reed still have their unofficial sources in the organization and around the league, and that's where the good info comes from. Only difference is, now you'll mostly get it on Twitter since they aren't full-time Panthers writers anymore.

I think Gantt has actually been better to follow on Twitter since his reassignment; he can editorialize and publish his gut assertions and rumors he hears that, in the past, wouldn't have met his paper's standards of verifiability.

But yes, the actual newspaper stories themselves will be more or less on Joe's shoulders.

[4Corners]

That sucks big time.

Like him or love him, Gantt was very good at his job.

Reed as well....very good at his job.

Now.....we are stuck w/ the Observer guys who don't come close to the two we just lost.

Joe Person is awful.