Looks like another potential smear campaign is happening, targeting the Big Cat.  Yahoo! Sports is reporting that Jerry Richardson supposedly mocked both Peyton Manning and Drew Brees -- the crux of the article seems to focus on a supposed sarcastic comment made by Richardson in response to Manning talking about player safety.  The full article is shown here.

More after the jump...

Honestly, I don't get all the hate.  Fine, Carolina is a smaller market than the "big cities" like New York, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, but it seems like every time I turn around, there's an article somewhere trying to bash the Panthers, or more telling, bash JR at every turn.  I'm beginning to think that this is a smear campaign backed by the NFLPA in yet another attempt to sway the NFL fanbase to side with the players because the NFLPA can't get their act together in the negotiations.  Maybe I'm wrong, but that's my gut hunch.

So, what do the rest of you think?