THE FIVE-DOLLAR BILL REPORTS …
The Fiver is of course your natural one-stop shop for all things gridiron, and so we report that Matt Rhule of the Carolina Panthers has become the first NFL coach to lose his job this season. To be honest, the news didn’t come as too much of a surprise: the Panthers had lost 27 of 38 games played under Rhule’s yoke, ending last season on a seven-game losing streak, then starting this one with four defeats out of five. After Sunday’s latest pounding, at the merciless hands of the 49ers, the few fans who still bother to travel from miles around the Carolinas booed and called for Rhule to bhugger off – and when catcalls echoing around half-populated stadiums start to get louder than the ringing of tills in concession stands, billionaire owners tend to sit up and take notice. So Rhule was sent bouncing down Interstate 85 on the well-upholstered seat of his pants (and that’s not a sizeist quip, he’s got a guaranteed $62m contract stuffed in his back pocket).
