Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales wants to continue to build a pretty important relationship with a pretty important pair of people—even on his bad days.
Canales spoke with reporters following this afternoon’s practice, the first official session since his rough head-coaching debut on Sunday. He was asked if he’s had the opportunity to speak with owner David Tepper after his team’s 47-10 loss to the New Orleans Saints.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Canales replied. “I talked to him. And, of course, these are people that I wanna make proud of what we’re doing here and what we’re building. So, it means a lot to me to make sure that I connect with him, to connect with Nicole [Tepper]—to be able to talk about just the state of our organization, just kinda following up on games.
“I look forward to that process. So we had some good times to connect after the game. Those are private conversations that I’ll keep to myself. But a lot of support.”
This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. After all, the Panthers—in their official announcement of his hiring, in fact—stated that Canales would report directly to Tepper.
Anyway, Dave also had a special message for David.
“Happy birthday, by the way, David,” Canales later added while looking into the hard camera from the presser. “I hope you’re having a great time with the family.”
Tepper turns 67 years old today.
