I won't argue the right or wrong of firing GM Marty Hurney, that's in the past now, but it raises some huge questions going forward, with some very troubling answers. I've never said this before, but the CO's Joe Person wrote a great article today, "Hurney: Didn't Have the Answer", alternately titled "Losing Environment Ends Marty (Hurney)". www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/10/23/3615110/losing-environment-ends-marty.html#storylink=omni_popular Perhaps I'm reading to much between the lines on this, but Person's story raises some very troubling questions, and here they are:

"...the Panthers held organizational meetings last week, ...".

Really, what did they do during the first week of the bye? That was the proper time to hold the organizational meetings, right after the Seahawks game, while the players weren't practicing, and that time was wasted if Person is correct about the timing of the meeting). The meeting should have occured the first week, conclusions reached, with both short and long term plans decided upon, so they could have been implimented during the second week of the bye (before the Cowboys game). Having the meeting during the second week had to have disrupted the game prep for the Cowboys game. Firing Hurney the day after the Cowboys game only means that the bye week was wasted. Is it a problem in the Panthers locker room?

"Hurney said an atmosphere of losing had pervaded the locker room. ... winning is contagious, and losing is contagious."

"And Hurney is right. There's a losing culture that is wrapped around the Panthers like a Shroud. And either that losing culture is going to change, or a whole lot of other things are." - Joe Person

If that's true, then who's responsible for it? Hurney wasn't in the locker room, so it has to be either the coaching staff, or the players. What do the players say:

"He's (JR)not going to sit around and hope for change. He's going to make stuff happen, ... that definitely puts more pressure on all of us to do our jobs." - LOT Jordan Gross

"Marty wasn't the reason we were losing!" - DE Charles Johnson

"Marty doesn't run routes, doesn't catch any passes, doesn't throw, doesn't block. ... Examples don't need to be laid by other men for people not doing their jobs." - WR Steve Smith

Once again, I may be reading to much between the lines, but that sounds like the coaching staff has lost the faith of it's players, and that firing Hurney may only make it that much worse.

"Rivera said he will coach like his job is at stake over the next 10 games. ... I asked Rivera Monday if he thought his job was safe. 'Yeah, I do' said Rivera, who is in the second season of a four-year $11.2 million contract." - Joe Person

Instead of helping the situation, has JR's firing of Hurney only made a bad situation much worse?

"Personnel decisions will be a collaborative effort handled principally by head coach Ron Rivera and the director of scouting, Mark Koncz. Rivera said he would have final say." - Joe Person

"Or it maybe that Rivera is told he can stay, but that he better change his coaching philosophy or alter his staff or players, ... Rivera said of possibly changing some assistants. 'If that's what has to happen eventually, then yeah - maybe that's what happens." - Joe Person

Sharing resposibility is always a bad idea, you need 1 person to be responsible, or everyone takes credit for what goes right, and no one takes the blame when things go wrong. I feel JR made an almost fatal error in this decision, worse than keeping Fox as a lame duck. Rivera's motivation will be to win now, trying to save his job. Now he will probably avoid playing any of the young players that need the development time the rest of this season, and like Fox, only play his vets, in the hope to win now, saving his job. This will make it much harder to correctly evaluate the young players on the roster, for the new GM. For Rivera it's now darn the future, win now, at all cost. This shired responsibility will also likely hinder needed roster moves going forward, because Rivera will fear cutting anyone will make him look bad on his origional judgement, and adding any new player will raise the question "Why didn't you do this sooner?". Of course he might just try to dump all the blame onto Hurney, saying Hurney wouldn't let him make the moves before. Was their bad blood between Hurney and Rivera?

"I would like to be able to say he became my friend ... I talked with him this morning and we had a great conversation and in his fashon, he was more concerned about me." - HC Ron Rivera

Maybe I'm just reading this wrong, but Rivera's saying "I would like to be able to say he became my friend", rather than just saying he was (is) my friend, or we became friends, implys that they weren't friendly, and that it was Hurney's fault. Rivera's then adding "in his fashon" also seems very odd, implying that Hurney was unfriendly. I may be totally misreading this (the audio may sound different than it reads), but that quote just sounds very strange.