Jake Delhomme and Bank of America: A Tale of Two Falling Stocks

The Carolina Panthers and Bank Of America are inexorably linked.  Since the Panthers' inception, BofA has been a major sponsor of the franchise.

Panthers president and owner, Jerry Richardson, and former BofA chairman, Hugh McColl had maintained a close relationship for years.  When Richardson was awarded the new franchise, McColl was instrumental in helping bring the franchise to Charlotte.

When McColl retired, current CEO Ken Lewis maintained that relationship with the organization, and the team and the bank prospered.

BofA became the nation's largest consumer bank, and the Panthers were one of the best run organizations in football.  The Panthers and BofA strengthened their bond when the bank purchased naming rights for the Panthers' stadium.

All good things, however, come to an end, and trouble was brewing just around the corner for the bank and the franchise.

BofA's problems started with the collapse of the mortgage industry.  Turns out that BofA was heavily invested in the type of sub-prime mortgage lending that blew up the economy.  The bank's stocks fell rapidly and they needed a government bailout just to stay afloat.

The Panthers troubles started during a home playoff game against the Arizona Cardinals.  In that game, quarterback Jake Delhomme threw a career-high five interceptions and also lost a fumble.

His six turnovers dampened any chances the Cats had and quickly ushered in the offseason for the Panthers.  This all took place on Jake's 34th birthday, and the city of Charlotte had to feel this was the worst gift we could get.  We were wrong.

Just like BofA, Panthers management awarded Delhomme a bonus also, a $60 million contract extension that I guess he earned with his stellar playoff performance.

The city of Charlotte has always maintained a love/hate relationship with Delhomme, and this past offseason the love aspect was totally forgotten.

The Queen City airwaves were buzzing about Jake's contract extension and the fact that he got such a huge raise when the Panthers' playoff failures were attributed mainly to him.

People were also upset that, at the same time, BofA and Wachovia, Charlotte's other big bank, were laying people off at a record pace due to the economic crisis.

They could not understand why, in such a time of crisis, that the Panthers would reward a player who had just failed so miserably with a long term contract.

Talk about rewarding people for failure.  BofA, while being bailed out by the American taxpayers, continued to lavish huge bonuses, and awards to executives while the citizens were powerless to stop it.

They say that time heals all wounds, and by the time training camp rolled around, the city was optimistic again about the Panthers' chances.  Jake seemed to have been forgiven for his past transgressions, and it was time to move on.

At the same time, encouraging signals were being sent from BofA.  The layoffs basically stopped, the bank recorded a decent profit, and they were able to repay the government some of our money back.

While we were celebrating the possible renewal of the bank and the franchise, we failed to heed the troubling signs that were around us.

For one, BofA's acquisition of troubled firm Merrill Lynch was not scrutinized the way it should have been when the deal was announced, and that left the door open for some disturbing questions.

Some of those questions were answered when it was discovered that BofA had continued to pay exorbitant bonuses to ousted Merrill executives.  Not only that, but it seemed that CEO Ken Lewis had been less than truthful to the securities and exchanges commission when stating the earnings projections of the merger.

During the same period, the Panthers' preseason began and Delhomme looked like he was stuck in the season of 2008.  His accuracy was still off and his passes still sailed either high or short.

To compound matters, the Panthers defense suffered significant losses in training camp, most noticeably defensive tackle Makke Keomatu, who was lost for the season on the 1st day of camp.

The offense was going to have to play a major role in saving the Cat's season, and they looked horribly unprepared for this task.

The Panthers proceeded to go 0-4 in the preseason and finished with more questions than when they began.  There were a lot of issues going around, but everything seemed to keep coming back to Delhomme.

There was not one game where Jake looked particularly sharp, and the offense suffered for it.  If Jake couldn't complete passes, teams would stack the line to prevent the talented running back tandem of DeAngelo Williams, and Jonathan Stewart from breaking out.

Coach John Fox downplayed the situation and surmised that nothing much could be gleaned from the preseason and things would look a lot different once the season started.

He sure was right about that.  The Panthers looked worse, getting pounded in their season opener 38-10 by the Philadelphia Eagles.  Jake was sacked 3 times, threw 4 picks, and had a fumble that directly led to an Eagles score.

The game was over by halftime, and a once proud organization was stuck like a deer in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle.

The team said all the right things afterwards, like it was a team loss and all the blame couldn't be credited to Jake.  Maybe not, but the truth is that Jake never afforded the Panthers a chance to compete.

The defense didn't do a bad job, but the Eagles scored 24 1st half points because of Delhomme turnovers. He effectively took the Panthers out of the game.

In one of the worst instances of coincidental luck since North Carolina joined the Confederacy, the SEC released a statement saying that BofA's misdeeds were a lot worse than people thought.

Details are murky because the investigation is ongoing, but it has been rumored that the results could cost CEO Ken Lewis his job.

The Panthers travel to Atlanta Sunday with Delhomme entrenched as the starter, though not as firmly as before.

If Jake's performance is anything like his last two, then maybe he and Lewis should get a jump and join the rest of us in the unemployment line.