Enemy territory.
A couple days ago, Luke Combs absolutely (and rightfully) tore into the Carolina Panthers and the leadership of the team (I use that word very loosely when it comes to owners David and Nicole Tepper), after they traded away star, two-time Pro Bowl defensive end Brian Burns to the New York Giants earlier this week.
In a move that was part of the free agency period in the NFL, according to The Athletic, the Panthers will receive the “No. 39 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and a 2025 fifth-round pick, addition to an additional fifth-round pick swap.”
So yeah… we’re still without a first round draft pick in 2024, because last year, the Panthers traded stud wide receiver DJ Moore to the Chicago Bears in exchange for a bunch of picks, including this year’s first overall pick for the chance to draft quartberack Bryce Young, which they did and is a story for a whole separate post.
Oh, and they traded Pro Bowl running back Christian McCaffrey to the San Francisco 49ers for a 2nd, 3rd and 4th-round pick in 2023 and a 5th rounder in 2024. Here’s a quick snapshot of all the pure tea torture:
And Luke, along with everyone else in the Carolina’s, has had enough, and he took to X (Twitter) to sound off about it all and I could not agree with him more:
“Panthers WHAT ARE WE DOING?!?!? No first round pick for McCaffrey a few years back and now none for Burns?!?! Are we just fire bombing the whole team here or what?
I usually don’t comment on these kinds of things but it’s just becoming slow torture at this point.”
And of course, the Panthers rival, the Atlanta Falcons, couldn’t pass up the opportunity to jab at him, responding to his tweet with a photo of Luke wearing a Falcons jersey during a show at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2019 saying:
“We’re always ‘One Number Away,’ Luke Combs.”
Dirty birds using his own song against him… classic, though I can’t say I’m the least bit surprised.
Luke was on The Pat McAfee Show earlier today and explained why he was wearing the jersey, and there’s a very valid reason:
“That particular picture was from 2019 at a show called ATLive that I played with Eric Church, and I actually lost a bet to my keys player who happens was a Falcons fan. We bet on the game, so nobody can question my fandom, we lost the game, I wore my Falcons jersey out there like I was supposed to.
Weaponize it all you want, I saw with Arthur Blank at the Super Bowl last year, Panthers didn’t invite me to go to the Super Bowl.”
And as a (very sad) Panthers fan myself, I can tell you that it will be a cold day in Hell before Luke ever switches up and so much as thinks about rooting for our #1 enemy. But this song feels more and more relevant with every stupid decision made by the wholly incompetent Panthers ownership…
