‘Disrespectful’ – Former NASCAR Driver Calls Out Fans For Booing a recovering NFL player

Published 12/27/2021, 7:13 AM EST

In sport, fans are always passionate, and sometimes they are too passionate. Earlier, the Carolina Panthers faced the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and were soundly thrashed 32-6. Naturally, Panthers fans were not thrilled about the loss and booed the team and the head coach. At one point, they even booed the returning Sam Darnold, and that did not sit well with former NASCAR driver Jeff Burton.

He posted a tweet where he said, “Pretty disappointed that fans will be so disrespectful to a player returning from injury.”

Pretty disappointed that fans will be so disrespectful to a player returning from an injury.
— Jeff Burton (@JeffBurton) December 26, 2021

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For the sake of context, Darnold was injured for a while and this was his first game since the injury. The 24-year-old quarterback came in at the start of the second quarter, subbing for Cam Newton. For some reason, the fans immediately booed Darnold when he stepped on the field, and head coach Matt Rhule didn’t like it.

Rhule said, “I think our fans have been great. They support us. And sometimes, you need to be booed. Now, for Sam, I hate it for him because all he’s done is played hard and got hurt. He’s just not Cam and what Cam means to so many people. But Sam was able to handle that. I have no issue with our fans. What our fans deserve is they deserve a winner.”

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The ex NASCAR driver was not the only one upset

Of course, there were several other fans on Twitter who agreed with Burton. However, there were others who provided a little more context to the situation. This is because most of the boos were directed towards head coach Rhule. As it turned out, he employed some bizarre tactics when he sent Newton back out again later in the game. Then he sent Darnold back out to close out the game.

For his part, Darnold ignored the boos and continued the game. At one point, he managed to connect a beautiful 63-yard pass with wide receiver Shi Smith. Unfortunately, all of his and Newton’s efforts were for naught, as the Panthers were humiliated.

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Dhruv George is a senior Motorsports author for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.