The two former Panthers were let go by the fired GM.
Steve Smith and the Panthers went through an ugly breakup back in 2014. Same goes for DeAngelo Williams that same offseason. And Josh Norman’s departure from Carolina in 2015 wasn’t pretty either.
The common denominator in all of those moves was GM Dave Gettleman, who made the unpopular (but necessary) decisions to let the fan favorites go.
Like Smith, Williams and Norman, Gettleman is now no longer a part of the organization after the team fired him abruptly Monday. The two former Panthers were quick to respond to the news on Twitter.
Norman was a little more subtle with his reaction…
Williams was not…
And we all know subtly isn’t really Smith’s thing. He went full-on savage mode with his response…
Smith has never pulled any punches when discussing his departure from Carolina and Gettleman’s role in his release, so this isn’t really a surprise.
» [Gettleman] doesn’t even have the cojones to tell us to our face [about the release] , » Smith said. « We have to hear it from someone else. Then he calls and says it wasn’t personal. If the first thing that comes out is ‘well it wasn’t personal, ‘ then guess what? It was personal. »
It’s obviously still personal for Smith, who has a somewhat fractured relationship with the organization he spent the first 13 years of his career with. Now that Gettleman is no longer in the picture, that relationship could start to mend itself.
