NFL

Panthers veteran offensive tackle Jordan Gross has decided to retire after 11 seasons, the team confirmed Tuesday.

Cam Newton ran the whole game, so the Panthers’ quarterback wasn’t about to stop Sunday after the Panthers clinched their first division title in five years.

After finishing a TV interview minutes after the 21-20 win against the Atlanta Falcons, Newton ran along the wall of the Georgia Dome, slapping hands with some of the thousands of Panthers’ fans who made the drive down Interstate 85.

Newton worked his way to the visitors locker room, where he was greeted by the blaring notes of “I’m a King” by T.I. and by teammates wearing black “division champions” hats.

Nationally, the Panthers aren'’t one of the NFL'’s most popular teams. In fact, try 4th least popular, according to an ESPN Sports Poll taken last year--not too surprising, considering the team is only heading into its 18th season of existence.

The Carolina Panthers, who are seeking more than $200 million in public funds for stadium renovations, said Thursday the team made $66.5 million during the 2010 and 2011 seasons, after an audit of the team was published by the website Deadspin.

  While the Carolina Panthers are in talks to upgrade their stadium, they also need to figure out who will play in it next season. The team is more than $10 million over next year’s league-wide salary cap. That means dropping expensive players and reworking contracts to get below the cap by March 12.

The Charlotte City Council met Monday night behind closed doors with Panthers president Danny Morrison and owner Jerry Richardson. The team is seeking public support for renovation of their 16-year-old stadium. But, Panthers officials won’t talk about it, the mayor won’t talk about it, and (only) a limited number of staff have been let in on it.

Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera says he’s searching for answers to solving the team’s string of disappointing losses. He just isn’t finding them.

“If we were losing games by 14 points, OK, we're not good enough. But when you lose close games, you are good enough. There's something missing,” Rivera said Monday during his weekly press conference at Bank of America stadium. “There's something we have to find and we've got to get past and through those things, and we've got to make plays.”

NFL games look different today, the first Sunday in November. The color pink won't be nearly as prevalent as it was in October. In this commentary, Ryan Basen says the NFL's "A Crucial Catch" campaign for breast cancer awareness is also a manipulative image-enhancer for the league and its corporate partners.