Two Carolina assistant coaches got fired Monday, less than 24 hours after the Panthers suffered their fourth consecutive loss.
Defensive line coach Brady Hoke and assistant secondary/cornerbacks coach Jeff Imamura were “relieved of their duties” — a gentle way to put a move that is both brutal and has a whiff of desperation about it.
Firing somebody in midseason, as coach Ron Rivera has done here, is the sort of move you make when you’re worried you might be next — or else when your boss forces you to do it, which Rivera said owner David Tepper did not do.