There’s no question that one North Carolina establishment’s message to Panthers owner David Tepper found its intended audience.
The message: “Please Let The Coach & GM Pick This Year.”
Dilworth Neighborhood Grille owner Matt Wohlfarth posted that on the signboard outside his Charlotte business before the start of this week’s NFL draft and caught the attention of Tepper, who then stopped by the establishment.
Tepper spoke with a manager and asked who put the message on the sign, but Wohlfarth had not been in the place when the Panthers owner was there.
The interaction was said to be a bit more on the “joking side,” and Wohlfarth — a season ticket holder since 1995 — was alerted to the visit by a manager, the Charlotte Observer reported.
Surveillance video posted by WBTV in Charlotte showed the moment that Tepper walked into the restaurant.
Wohlfarth told the Charlotte Observer that it wasn’t the first time he had come by, but the previous time was in response to a different sign that read: “Meddling owners never win. Run from Jerry Jones.”
Tepper didn’t seem to take too kindly to that and “was sorta pissed off about that one,” Wohlfarth explained.
The Panthers owner has developed a reputation as an owner who oversteps the bounds of his role, which has not been helped by the fact that Carolina has gone 31-68 and gone through six head coaches under his stewardship.
Last year’s No. 1 pick, Bryce Young, struggled during his rookie season.
And because Carolina traded up with the Bears for that spot, it didn’t have the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, something it would have had with their 2-15 record.
The Dilworth Neighborhood Grille owner wished that he had been in the restaurant when Tepper had stopped by so that he could have had a candid conversation with the Panthers owner.
“I do need him to be more of an owner and less of a coach or a GM,” Wohlfarth told WBTV.
Wohlfarth is standing behind the sign and told the news station that “everything I’ve heard this year leads me to believe that he is taking that to heart, I just want to make sure.”
The Panthers used their first-round pick — which they traded up to make — to take wide receiver Xavier Legette and selected running back Jonathon Brooks in the second round.