After a 2-14 season, Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson must have figured he had some explaining to do. So on Tuesday, for he first time in nine years, he met with reporters to discuss his team’s past, present and future.

Among his revelations:

• Richardson said he kept coach John Fox this season only because he didn't want to pay off Fox and his staff, with a total of $11.4 million in contracts, while also paying a new coach and assistants. "You know, we are running a business here," he was quoted as saying in the Charlotte Observer.
   
• He said he and general manager Marty Hurney would pursue a promising NFL assistant coach, not a veteran, to replace Fox.
   
• Richardson, who said he owns 48 percent of the team, said the Panthers declined to re-sign some of the veteran players this year as a means of forcing Fox to give some of the rookies playing time. "Young players, the best way that they are going to get better is to play," he said. "If you have veteran players here, we have a history of a coaching staff that was going to play the veteran players. In my simple brain, the best way I could have assured the young players were to get to play is that they would have to play. I think they did very well."

Read more about Richardson’s comments, including his outlook concerning a possible lockout next season and how the Panthers will use its No. 1 draft pick, on CharlotteObserver.com.

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