Wednesday, for the first time since the Carolina Panthers opened training camp in the summer, there was no music playing at a team practice.
Instead, the faint clang of nearby construction and the shrieking of coaches’ whistles pierced the somber air. Quarterback Cam Newton, dressed in sweats and tennis shoes, stood in the back of drills through the day’s workout.
Newton will sit out the Panthers’ final two games, a league source told the Observer on Wednesday. The team later confirmed the news.
And the day the music died in Charlotte is only the beginning , with sobering questions about the future looming.