Luke Combs lays into David Tepper-run Panthers: ‘Feels like we’re the worst franchise’ in pro sports

Country music star Luke Combs is like so many other Carolina Panthers fans these days: Dejected at the state of the franchise. And joining The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday afternoon, Combs shared his displeasure with the man seemingly at the center of the dysfunction, owner David Tepper.

Tepper, who bought the Panthers in 2018 for a then-record $2.2 billion, has stewarded the franchise to a 31-68 record with six head coaches since taking over. It had Combs speaking bleakly about the state of things for his favorite NFL team.

“But, you know, it kind of feels like we’re the worst franchise in all of professional sports right now. And it’s really hard. It’s really hard to deal with that,” Combs said.

He also noted that though Tepper is a highly successful individual in the world of high finance and asset management, success in one field is rarely directly translated into another.

Combs used himself as an on-the-nose example.

“So — he’s obviously a shrewd businessman,” Combs said. “But I’m a great musician and I’m not a football coach, you know what I mean? That’s just the way it is. I’m great at doing music, but I ain’t at the combine yelling you who to draft. You know what I mean? You can be good at one thing, don’t mean you’re good at something else.”

As the Panthers have flailed in recent years, an unsavory side of Tepper started to shine through, such as when he threw a drink on fans out of his suite at a game during the 2023 season.

Pat McAfee and Co. reminded Combs of the story when Tepper apparently purchased the vacation home of a former boss or manager that he disliked, tore down the house, and built a bigger one on the same site.

Combs had a bit of a tongue-in-cheek response to that, as he’s well aware of how much Tepper is worth.

“And I think as a fan, I think we all — I mean throwing drinks on the fans in Jacksonville ain’t a hot look,” Combs said. “It ain’t a good look. And he’s probably trying to buy my house. He’s probably trying to buy my house. He could if he wanted, I would be glad to sell it to him.”

Combs also wasn’t sold on the new head coach in Carolina

In between recording, touring and performing at the Grammys with Tracy Chapman, Combs still finds time to keep up with his favorite football team, the Carolina Panthers, who have not had an easy go of it the last few seasons. After drafting Bryce Young and hiring Frank Reich last offseason, there was optimism, but that was quickly dashed by the actual performance of the team in 2023.

By Week 12, Carolina was 1-10 and had already fired Reich with less than a dozen games under his belt. Now, they overhauled with a new coach in Dave Canales and made some moves to try and improve the pieces around Bryce Young. But Combs isn’t buying into the optimism this time around, and went on McAfee’s show to talk some Panthers.

“Yeah, it’s tough, man, it really is,” said Combs of the current experience of Panther fans just two days after he fired off a tweet lambasting the franchise after they traded Brian Burns.

That tweet, which tagged the Panthers official account, read: “WHAT ARE WE DOING?!?!? No first round pick for McCaffrey a few years back and now none for Burns?!?! Are we just fire bombing the whole team here or what? I usually don’t comment on these kinds of things but it’s just becoming slow torture at this point.”

Not only is Combs upset about that transaction, but he also made a dig at the Panthers’ new coaching hire when talking with McAfee.

“I don’t know, man. Obviously, I don’t know Dave at all. You know, I’m sure he’s an awesome guy, but I don’t get the hype behind hiring the offensive coordinator for the 20th best offense in the league. You know what I mean?”