Dear Bryce,
The Carolina Panthers stand on
the precipice of recent history. Your team controls their own destiny in the playoffs in December, a fact that has long time fans of the Carolina Panthers feeling all kinds of ways. Unfortunately, confident is not commonly one of those ways. The Panthers lack of consistency against the wide range of opponents that you have faced thus far in the 2025 season has us struggling to believe. In games against “big” opponents, like the Green Bay Packers and the Los Angeles Rams, you show up and lead the team against all odds. In games against teams that are still finding their way, like the New York Jets or the New Orleans Saints, you seem to mirror their struggles more than your own past successes. In short, you seem to play better the less people expect of you. This has fans nervous even while
optimism is on the rise. To smooth you and your team’s path to the playoffs I would like to offer a solution to both problems: please come join our comments section.
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I do not meant to insult you or for you to be insulted by our barely presentable membership. Indeed, rarely will you find a more wretched hive of doubt and misery than a Carolina Panthers fan community that has rallied for years around a weekly column dedicated to optimism. But you will also struggle to find a community anywhere else online that loves the Panthers as we do. Insulting you is the last thing I want. My goal is to enter into a mutually beneficial conversation.
You may have seen that Carolina is once again favored against the New Orleans Saints this week. That’s even after those same Saints upset the once vaunted Tampa Bay Buccaneers, tying them with your team for the lead in the NFC South in the process. Unless you were having an out-of-body experience a week ago, you likely also noticed yourself throwing three impressive touchdown passes to beat the Los Angeles Rams against literally all odds and predictions. These are the kinds of events that egos are built on in the NFL. For some players, like former Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, that can be a healthy part of a season. Other players, like former Panthers legend Steve Smith Sr, thrived on disrespect and long odds.
If you have more in common with Smitty in that regard then please consider us at your disposal. Nobody hates like a long-suffering fan. Meanwhile, no hearts are turned faster than those of long-suffering fans when interacting with a player like they’re people. I was all jokes and sarcasm around here until
it happened to me.
We here at Cat Scratch Reader want nothing but the best for you and for the Carolina Panthers. There is no shorter route to winning or relevancy than through your successful career as our quarterback. If the most we can do to help facilitate your development into a franchise quarterback is to offer you a healthy dose of skepticism, occasional spite, and general pessimism all wrapped in long steeped fandom then we are happy to oblige. There is a widget over on the side of this article to direct you towards making a user account and dropping in your first comment. Anybody else reading this is also welcome to follow those directions and
join the conversation. I promise it isn’t as dark as I make it sound. That’s just me selling it to Bryce.
Of course, Bryce, if you are more the kind of guy who responds to hype and optimism then it may be best if we maintain our current healthy distance. It can be a little feral down there.
Thanks for reading and we look forward to hearing from you soon.
Regards,
Walker Clement
