Darin Gantt leaving NFL beat?

No, they had Charles Chandler, who took the reins when Pat Yasinskas left to work the NFC South for ESPN.com.

They've always had at least two Panthers writers. Now I guess they feel that one is sufficient.

Eastern North Carolina is a college-driven market. They care about the Triangle schools in Charlotte, but that is a more NASCAR and pro sports market. Can't give the folks in Charlotte the same thing the readers in the Triangle get. When - If? - McClatchy realizes this, they'll be much better off.

As much as Charlotte Metro and the Triangle try to compare themselves to one another in regards to just about everything, the last thing they need is someone saying that the average reader wants the same coverage of sports in both markets.

 

Person was a great colleges writer. For all I know, he's done a great job covering the Panthers.

But covering the NFL is about 1,000X harder than covering colleges and it's all about contacts and relationships that have to be developed over a long period of time. I'll be curious how many times someone on the Panthers beat now calls Darin to see if he "can help out with something"

For years and years, the two best on the Panthers beat were Yasinskas and Gantt.

This is sad.

 

A moot point anyway, as the Triangle's main paper (the News and Observer) and Charlotte's main paper (the Charlotte Observer) went to a universal sports desk, I believe, a year or three ago. Duke/UNC/State/Hurricanes and Panthers/Bobcats/NASCAR coverage are exchanged back and forth between the two. So cutting one doesn't mean improving the other in Charlotte, as they import their college hoops stuff from Raleigh anyway.

 

Good guy who did a very good job on the Panthers. Wish him well.

 

In that case, I can't believe anyone would think the Charlotte paper would go without a beat writer covering the Charlotte NFL team. I understand that's a shared sports desk, but for the biggest game in town you need your own writer.

 

That would seem to imply going cheap and dumb is a new thing at McClatchy. Or did you mean it is a continuing thing, which would be more accurate?

 

Just another in a long line of dumb-ass decisions by McClatchy ...

 

I'll bet Darin never covers a Winthrop game. Hopefully that will be because another paper/website hires him away to cover what he should be covering.

 

http://www.heraldonline.com/2011/04/12/2983933/winthrop-taps-ole-miss-assistant.html#

in the meantime, he's already breaking news on the Eagles. I, too, hope he gets scooped up by another outlet and goes back to writing/tweeting/mock drafting re: the Panthers, and in a hurry. Is April 28th an unrealistic goal?

 

Cheap, dumb and mean. Gantt was screwed by the Observer (more than McClatchy). He deserved a hell of a lot better.

 

Just wanted to thank everyone for the kind words. Honestly, announcing the news on twitter and then reading some of the comments was like attending your own funeral. Who knew people liked me? Maybe I should have been nicer to them when I was alive.

I have a job, with paychecks and benefits and everything. I'm luckier than many. I get that.

Most importantly, I've also found out in the last 41 hours that I have more incredible friends and supporters than I ever knew, in the business and outside. If nothing else comes of this, that's been an eye-opener for me. All I can really say is thanks to everyone who's reached out. If I haven't returned your call or email, I will try to soon, because I'm genuinely floored by the way my phone has blown up since Monday afternoon's news.

 

It's the only good thing about losing your job in this business. People who you didn't know knew that you existed come out of the woodwork to wish you well.