Dave Gettleman was not in the business of making friends while he was running the Carolina Panthers. He was in the business of building an NFL roster. He was pretty good at the latter and in the process did a pretty bad job at the former, especially when it came to popular Panthers players who were pushed out the door as they aged.
The most notable example was former Panthers wideout Steve Smith, arguably the greatest player in franchise history, who was released in a fashion that left him rather ... non-plussed.
Smith clearly held a grudge since being fired and he let it be known that he was not entirely displeased with the Gettleman dismissal with an aggressive tweet on Monday after the news came out.
Its Okay! Dave I know how you feel..... #agent89🕵🏼 #stevesmithsr pic.twitter.com/czlwuG92Ck
— Steve Smith Sr (@89SteveSmith) July 17, 2017
In case you can't read between the lines, Smith is laughing at Gettleman for being fired after Gettleman previously fired him.
Former Panthers cornerback Josh Norman, who was ditched last offseason in a shocker of a move as the Panthers rescinded his franchise tag, also weighed in on Gettleman's release.
"👀" 🤔
— *Joshua R. Norman (@J_No24) July 17, 2017
But the real fire came from former Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams, who previously said he would not play for the Panthers because of how things went down when he was released. You may recall Williams' anger toward the franchise following the funeral of his mother.
I want to publicly say @Panthers is off my list of teams I won't play for due to the firing of that snake Dave gettleman! 😎😎👌🏽✊🏽
— DeAngelo Williams (@DeAngeloRB) July 17, 2017
There has always been a lot of displeasure with Gettleman in the locker room, stemming from how he handled the departure of popular veterans. Winning cures almost everything in football, but clearly Gettleman's success (three division titles in four years and a Super Bowl appearance after a 15-1 season) were not enough to overcome other issues.