The Panthers ended a disappointing season in Tampa on Sunday with a 17-16 loss to the Buccaneers that featured kicker Graham Gano missing three-of-four field goal attempts over the course of the afternoon.
After the game, Gano had some complaints about the way the stadium’s video board was being used on his kicks. While there was a Bucs logo against a red background for Roberto Aguayo’s kicks, the board showed a live shot of Gano getting ready that the kicker said made his job more difficult.
“You look out there, there’s two [sets of] uprights you’re looking at,” Gano said, via the Charlotte Observer. “I know the league talked to them about it before when we played here a couple years ago. So it’s a bit bush-league. But once again, it’s not a reason why I performed poorly. It just adds another element.”
Gano wasn’t only one calling the Bucs’ video board operations bush-league after the game. Coach Ron Rivera took issue with replays of a hit by linebacker Thomas Davis on Bucs wide receiver Russell Shepard after a play that saw Jameis Winston scrambling. The play was not penalized and Rivera took issue with showing the replays to rile up the crowd.
“Well, first of all I think that’s bush-league, to show that play up on the screen,” Rivera said. “What are we trying to incite here? Let’s don’t do that. That’s got no place in the NFL, as far as I’m concerned. TD did something that, the guy scrambles around and he saw Jameis break through. So at that point you can eliminate receivers. I wish it didn’t happen, but that’s a part of the game. But I really do mean that. I don’t think you put that type of play up on the screen. I don’t think that’s right.”
On the list of things that went wrong for the Panthers this year, rogue video boards are somewhere near the bottom of the list but it goes to show that it wasn’t their year to see them on the list at all.