So long, Foxy

To paraphrase Tolstoy, all good football teams resemble one another, but each bad football team is bad in its own way.

This year's Carolina Panthers have (so far - one game left!) only one more win than the 2001 team that won its first game and then dropped the next 15 straight, but the two squads are very different. Watching the 2001 Panthers at the time, it was obvious that Coach Seifert was biding time until he could get fired and go back to shuffleboard or whatever, and one couldn't blame the players for returning the feeling.

But, if there's one thing you can say about the 2010 Panthers, it's that they never quit on one another. They're frighteningly young, and by extension inexperienced, and that means they make mistakes. But they never just rolled over. And that tells us everything we need to know about how much those players respect John Fox.

I respect Fox, too. Firing him, as the Panthers did today, is probably the right decision, but it still sucks. It sucks because - and believe me, I know how cheesy this sounds, but - that team is a family. The fans who sit in that stadium every week are part of that family, too. It was easy to say good riddance to George Seifert. It was kind of easy to do the same for Dom Capers, just because I was so young in my football fandom. But I still have the journal where I wrote about the Panthers hiring John Fox. I was there when he beat the Cowboys in the playoffs after getting outcoached by them in the regular season, I was there for Steve Smith's double-OT touchdown over the Rams and the murder of the Eagles, and I was there when we just barely lost the Super Bowl. I was there for a lot of frustrating decisions on playcalling and personnel, but I never stopped respecting him.

The Panthers won Fox's last home game, and I hope he leaves N.C. with a lot of good memories. I genuinely hope he continues his NFL career, and I wish him all the best.

Because as long as I live I will never forget sitting in section 529 watching the Panthers beat the Jaguars by one point, coming back from a 17-point deficit at the half (Jake Delhomme's first game). I was there with my parents, and we knew we were watching something special. And I'll never forget sitting in my dad's basement a few months later watching this. I will most definitely never forget.

So long, Foxy. Thanks for the good times.