Report: Panthers' Tepper Purposely Mispronounces Names to Put People 'in Their Place'

Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper may not be the best boss.

Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio noted Tepper mispronounced the name of recently fired head coach Frank Reich during a press conference Tuesday discussing the change.

According to Florio, that might have been by design. He spoke with a source who said Tepper will intentionally pronounce names incorrectly as "his way of putting people in their place."

New York Magazine's Jessica Pressler didn't exactly paint a flattering portrayal of Tepper when she profiled the billionaire hedge fund manager in 2010. She cited a person who had worked directly with him and described him as "almost like Jekyll and Hyde, you didn't know any given day who was going to walk through the door."

Tepper's stewardship of the Panthers since gaining control of the team in July 2018 has done little to dispel that perception.

The 66-year-old has already fired three head coaches, with Reich getting less than a full season at the helm. The MMQB's Albert Breer interviewed a former Panthers staffer who provided some insight into Tepper's mindset, which helps to explain the high rate of turnover.

"His thing is, the minute it gets bad, it's going to get worse, so we better try something else," the ex-staffer said. "He's a hedge fund guy; that's what hedge fund guys do. The second something stops earning money, they take their money out of it, take the profit and move on to something else."

That approach simply isn't sustainable because it becomes impossible for a team to build any continuity on the field.

Breer also reported Tepper "does have his hands in everything."

"The nitty-gritty football stuff isn't his forte," he wrote. "But anything that involves analytics, probability or market value is. And that's where people there think Reich really found himself in a rut with Tepper."

Florio reported Sunday there's a belief around the league that Tepper was the driving force behind selecting Bryce Young rather than C.J. Stroud with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft. The owner said Tuesday that the choice "was a unanimous decision from the coaches and the scouts."

The Panthers will almost certainly have multiple suitors for their coaching vacancy because only so many of these opportunities become available in a given offseason. Based on all of the factors at play, though, Carolina may not get the first choice of candidates.