EJECTED!!!???WTF!!!???

Yesterdays’ gameday experience came close to hitting a new all-time low for me personally. Lower than the end-of season disaster in a half-empty stadium full of drunken Pastry-Rot fans in 2001. Lower than the season-long debacle of Dinky Carr in 2007. Exceeded by only the passing of Marc, but that was not directly related to any team activities. But last night, I felt the full force of the anti-fun mentality of what is the Bank of America Stadium operations.

I was ejected from the stadium in the third quarter for doing what I’ve been doing for the past fourteen years.

The “C A T S” cheer.

Come on, Panthers!!!

During ONE BRIGHT SPOT in an otherwise DISMAL preseason, I celebrated our ONE touchdown by doing as I’ve always done, jogging down to the bottom of the section, doing the cheer, and what to my amazement did I see? A red-shirted dweeb of the Show Pros group telling me to “get back in my seat!” I was incredulous! After 14 years, NOW they’re telling me NOT to pump up the crowd? I told him he had to be kidding me, and he proceed to warn me I would be ejected if I didn’t comply. I went to complain to a clipboard toting official person, and then, a posse of COPS surrounded me! They forced me to come to the security office, where I was asked virtually no questions, and given NO answers as to why I was being detained. I demanded to be told, but instead, I was told I would be jailed if I protested further.


I

Was

Stunned.


My wing man, Vic Hubacek shot some photos and video with one of those dad-blang I-phone contraptions, which actually turned out good for me. He’d questioned the Show Pros dweeb about what I had done, and he told him I was cursing down there – WTF??? CURSING??!! DURING THE C A T S CHEER??? You, mister John Ross, if that indeed is your name, are a clueless, power-drunk ill-placed ill-qualified child for such an important position. Perhaps Vic REALLY pissed him off with his pressing questions, which “John” didn’t feel he needed to answer, that unimportant waste of protoplasm.

All I know is that I was so blatantly wronged, that I knew I had to get this story out.
In the light of all of the changes in the top management positions and the sucky performance all around of the team, that the brusque, overbearing and totally unnecessary treatment of one the teams most vocal and passionate fans might be newsworthy. Upon coming home, I grabbed the White Pages, turned to “W”, and started calling news desks. I was determined to have my story heard by a VERY LARGE regional audience. I found an enthusiastic gleaner at Channel 36, and sure enough, Maria Kotula called me this morning, excited to know more. The news crew came to my office at 1.15, and filmed for about thirty minutes. The end result is a thing of beauty. It couldn’t do much better in making the Panthers stadium staff look bad if I had Washington’s expert spin medics do it. Maria tells me the video is on their website so check it out at

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wcnc.com%2Fvideo%2Findex.html%3Fnvid%3D395595&h=9ec234b770193d650e85f56372360fc8


I will be hearing from the Panthers Tuesday.

So, where does that leave me, your one-time vocal passionate voice of Pantherfanz?

It’s hard to say at this point. Right now, my enthusiasm for the team is ZILCH. ZIPPO. NADA. I’d rather pull for the Detroit Lions right now than to utter one meager cheer for this bunch. Yes, yes, I know that DWill & co. weren’t the a**holes who ejected me. But they are all part of the organization that’s wronged me. Still, I am a HUGE MEGA fan of the NFL, and in a wider scope, the game of football. No matter what the Panthers hand down to me in the aftermath of my challenge, I will be at the lot on every gameday, I will continue to rant, week after week on this website. I think this collection of football fans transcends the petty bullshit, the crappy performances, and I am tasked by the honour and memory of someone I love dearly, who also had his share of run-ins with stadium fascists.

And I still picked DeAngelo Williams with the first pick of my fantasy draft.

The season is beginning. I’ll be back with season projections for the league before Thursday.

And I leave you, unfortunately, not with a claw, not with a growl, but a heartfelt-
“Go FANZ!” – It’s good, at least, to get the party started once more. The tribal fires are lit, and the warriors reassemble. No matter what the Panthers do, WE are going to have yet another killer season.

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E-mail me, the one-time Cedar Street Seer,

“Crazy Joe” the “CLAW MAN!!!”

CaptnTee@aol.com