What does it mean to control your own destiny?
By its most rudimentary definition, it means your future is solely determined by your actions. In sports, it generally means a team will make the postseason if it wins the rest of its games, regardless of what anyone else does.
To control your own destiny is a liberating state of being, one where another team’s success (or lack thereof) won’t represent the difference between participating in the playoffs or watching them from the living room.
The Carolina Panthers do not control their own destiny. Not after their current three-game losing streak sent them from wild-card leader to wild-card hopeful in less than a month.