Oh what a difference a few months can make, Carolina Panthers fans.
That’s right, after being benched and mock traded to darn near every single team in the NFL, Bryce Young’s stock has shot straight up like hatred for Juan Soto among Yankees fans when he signed with the Mets. Though it took a little for him to get going, and his efforts didn’t always result in wins, in the end, Young’s status as a franchise quarterback has been confirmed, and fans are loving it, so much so that they’ve given him a brand new nickname: the Carolina Reaper.
Asked about the moniker by reporters at his locker, Young was initially confused, wondering if it had to do with the pepper. While yes, that is where the nickname comes from, at least in part, the other is his impressive track record of impacting change around the NFL, with multiple coaches fired and the Arizona Cardinals eliminated from the playoffs, at least in part, due to his impressive play.
“No, that’s the first time hearing it. I can’t really control nicknames,” Young noted. “I don’t know, reapers is a little, like, evil. I don’t know, I try not to be evil, so I dont know how to feel about it but yeah, its not really up to me I guess.”
Alright, while Young’s appearance and generally popular persona don’t exactly exploit Grim Reaper, and nothing about his is particularly spicy like the pepper, some nicknames are so good you more or less have to fit them into a situation when appropriate. If Young keeps slinging the ball like he has in December and destabilizing opposing organizations while leading Dan Canelis’ offense, who knows, maybe the Heisman winner out of Alabama will grow into his new moniker and embrace what it means to be an evil force in the NFC South.
