0:03

His title is a mouthful, but the Panthers

0:06

Executive Director of Player Finance and

0:08

Football Research, Rob Rogers, started

0:10

here twenty five years ago with a one

0:12

word title, TEMP

0:14

being desktop publishing. I've figured

0:16

it was probably something in media

0:19

pr or something like that. Walk

0:21

in the first day and find out that

0:24

it was an opportunity for the coaching staff.

0:26

The amazing story of Harvard grad

0:29

turned in turn turned salary cap

0:31

expert. Rob Rogers next

0:33

on the podcast five

0:36

Seasons of Panthers Football, a

0:38

celebration of the players, coaches, and

0:40

other people who have contributed to the organizational

0:43

success. No to mcmixon.

0:46

Our podcast with the great Rob Rodgers begins

0:49

with a humility alert. He's

0:51

um, he's got a defense that's even

0:53

more sophisticated than his offense. It may

0:55

be difficult to get much out of Rob Rogers,

0:57

but we're gonna try anyway. With the Anthers

1:00

Executive director of Player Finance

1:02

and Football Research, a k A

1:05

cap guy. Welcome, Rob, happy

1:08

to be here. You don't look at Are we

1:10

done yet? Not quite. Let's go back

1:12

to to the beginning. How did you start with the Carolina

1:14

Panthers. Um? Actually,

1:17

I moved to uh,

1:19

I moved to North Carolina to Charlotte,

1:21

North Carolina in January,

1:25

and at the time I anticipated

1:28

I would I would be I was setting

1:30

up interviews with in

1:32

the banking area and UH

1:35

I had anticipated that that would be the route

1:38

that I would go. I ended up signing

1:40

up for while I was doing

1:42

my job STARCH. I thought it would take about two to three

1:44

months beginning to end, from like getting

1:46

resumes out UH to finally

1:49

figuring out, you know, if there's a job, UH,

1:53

getting a job so to earn

1:55

some cash during in the interim

1:58

because I was just crashing at my sister place

2:00

here in Charlotte. Then I signed up for

2:02

a couple of local temp agencies, and

2:04

I was just going to do a random

2:07

temp jobs to just get get a feel

2:09

for the city and just basically get out

2:11

in about a little bit. One of

2:13

the first opportunities

2:15

I had, I was standing at the counter of this particular

2:17

temp agency when a call came in and they asked

2:19

if I knew any desktop publishing

2:22

UM And because I happened to be standing

2:24

there, they asked me that was what they were looking for. And

2:27

and I had done a couple of newsletters in college

2:29

and and was familiar with a

2:32

couple of the uh the products

2:34

that were out there at the time. Uh

2:36

So I was going like, yeah, I mean, I you know,

2:39

I know my way around it a little bit. I'd

2:42

always been a PC person. Then they asked, you

2:44

know, are are you Are you familiar with

2:47

the MAC and I was It

2:49

was going like, well, how hard could that be? So

2:51

I was like, yeah, sure, I'm familiar

2:53

with the MAC and uh So

2:56

they said, okay, well, we've got a two week job, and

3:00

so they give me the address. It's in

3:02

rock Hill, rock Hill, South Carolina,

3:04

Winthrop Coliseum. And

3:07

I had an inkling that had something to

3:09

do with the Panthers just from the uh from

3:11

the way they were talking about it. But being

3:14

desktop publishing, I've figured it

3:16

was probably something in in media

3:18

pror something like that. Walk

3:20

in the first day and find out that

3:23

it was an opportunity with coaching staff.

3:27

Dom Capers had just been hired about two or three

3:29

weeks earlier, and one

3:31

of the things that Dom wanted to do. Uh

3:34

And this was all based on when

3:36

he was a coordinator at the Pittsburgh

3:38

Steelers. Yeah, he had an assistant

3:41

that was there with him named Billy Davis, who

3:44

had started to put

3:47

some of their weekly game notes and

3:49

diagrams on computer. And

3:52

this actually, you know we're talking

3:55

would think, you know, you

3:57

would think that that was something more widespread

4:00

the time, but it wasn't. Coaches were still doing

4:02

a lot of their playbooks and a lot of their weekly

4:04

game plans and and weekly game notes

4:07

by having them having them typed up

4:09

if there were notes, and then the diagrams they were

4:11

doing by hand. So Don

4:14

recognized with what Billy was doing for him

4:16

in Pittsburgh. Um, and I got

4:18

to make sure to mention Billy's name. I told the story

4:20

one time before and he got mad at me because I didn't say

4:22

the name. But um,

4:25

domum. But Don recognized

4:27

while he was the defensive coordinat of Pittsburgh, that allowed

4:29

them to be much more efficient and what they

4:31

were doing each week, having a wider variety

4:34

of looks that they could show the players

4:36

and also just being able to what

4:39

they could carry over and then what they could just you

4:41

know, use and then change, had

4:44

a lot more flexibility. So what he

4:46

decided when he became a head coach was I want

4:48

all of my playbooks and I want everything

4:50

that we do on a weekly basis to be on computer.

4:54

And so they they

4:56

actually had someone that they were planning on hiring,

4:58

so but that person and couldn't get

5:00

in until UH for several

5:03

weeks, and so they

5:05

put it out a call to just try to basically

5:07

just hit the ground running and get get a head

5:09

start before that person and I

5:12

could come in. Hence the two

5:14

week tempshop and so

5:16

UH I ended up. I showed

5:18

up UH and they

5:21

went through everything that they were doing started

5:23

on that first day. UH

5:26

really was exciting environment. Don dom Caber

5:28

is one of the best people that have been around in this business.

5:31

Ah. He is not only a great

5:33

coach, but he's a great person as well. And

5:36

and I ended up that same

5:38

Billy Davis had followed him from the Steelers

5:41

to the Panthers as our outside

5:43

linebackers coach at the time. And I ended

5:46

up at a table and with

5:48

a computer set up in the corner of his office

5:50

and we actually ended up becoming good friends, still

5:53

friends to this day. And

5:55

so we started working on that

5:58

and at the end of two weeks, the person that they

6:00

had hired to ended up not being able to take the job.

6:02

And so two weeks turned

6:04

into three months. At the end of three

6:06

months, the temp contract was was up

6:09

and I was not

6:12

making any uh. I had actually become

6:14

so engrossed in this and we

6:16

were we were

6:18

working like crazy, long days,

6:21

seven days a week, everything

6:23

that we were doing there, and that that spring

6:26

of creating everything from scratch.

6:28

Anytime something was needed, we didn't.

6:31

We either had to make it or buy it. And

6:33

a lot of times it was it was it was make it because

6:36

we were expansion franchise, had never

6:38

played a game, and so

6:41

basically, basically I became

6:44

so engrossed and that the job search got kind

6:46

of got put on the side. And then at the

6:48

end of the three months, when the temp job had

6:51

run its course, I

6:53

was sitting there one day and Bill

6:55

polian Or, who was our original general

6:58

manager, Mike McCormick, the original president

7:00

of the organization, both of them came into the office

7:02

where I was, closed the door behind them, sat

7:05

down, and they basically

7:08

asked if I was interested in the opportunity to

7:10

to stay with the Panthers. And

7:13

at the time, I'm thinking, Okay, this

7:16

is really interesting. I can always you know, go

7:18

to that other career in a year or two. And then I

7:20

have something to talk about, you

7:22

know, UH, you

7:25

know, for years for years forward of buying year

7:28

or two of UH spending

7:30

time and working with a football

7:32

staff for UH

7:35

for a few years, and so accepted

7:38

the position working with Dom and his staff.

7:40

Basically they called it a quality control

7:43

position, but a lot

7:45

of times the quality control coaches also

7:47

had some coaching type responsibilities. I

7:50

actually was more embedded

7:52

with the coaching staff, trying to figure out better ways

7:54

to do things. And I always

7:57

look at it as more of like a business and business

7:59

analyst, business intelligence type thing, where

8:01

we for the time that I was working

8:03

with Don staff, we were you know,

8:06

working with the playbooks, working on creating

8:08

some internal software I would

8:10

do. I would help them with the weekly game plans,

8:12

production notes. But time

8:15

goes by, and I used to have a you know,

8:17

running joke with UH, with

8:19

with Dom, with Bill, with

8:22

Mr Richardson that that's probably

8:24

the longest two week temp job in the history

8:26

of the NFL and the most successful,

8:29

given that you're an executive director

8:31

and the salary captain that you are. I

8:33

have blinked in twenty five years

8:36

have gone by a lot of different hats along the

8:38

way, different responsibilities along the

8:40

way, a lot of great people.

8:43

Uh that's uh, that's the one constant

8:46

both in this organization and and

8:48

you know at the league office, and

8:50

uh had an opportunity, uh

8:52

to see a lot of highs and lows on the field.

8:55

Um. Uh the highs

8:57

are really really really thrilling and and

9:00

rewarding. Um. But but

9:03

yeah, that uh never did get back

9:05

to those interviews with for those

9:07

banking or consulting jobs, and

9:10

the Panthers are certainly better for that. So

9:12

at that time in your life, Rob Rodgers, you're

9:14

I'm guessing less than two years after

9:17

having graduated from Harvard where

9:19

you wrestled. Did you also play football at Harvard?

9:22

Yeah, I played freshman

9:24

football and then I played one year of varsity

9:26

football as a sophomore. Um.

9:29

I was Um,

9:33

I was a stalwart of the scout team for that

9:35

one year. Uh and uh so

9:37

so from you know, I'm not going

9:39

to inflate it too much. It

9:42

was basically we were reading

9:44

the cards and trying to give the give the guys

9:46

the best look that we could. And

9:49

uh we had we had about you know,

9:51

five or six of us on the on the offensive

9:53

line there who were sophomores and juniors

9:56

who UH did our best to

9:59

try to make it hard in the varsity for the UH

10:01

A few a few practices each week as

10:04

we prepared. So as we bring

10:06

your story into focus, your grocer's

10:08

son from near Charleston, West Virginia,

10:11

You've got the wrestling chops, football,

10:13

and you graduate from Harvard to

10:16

what degree, Rob Rogers, do you feel like those

10:18

things helped you get UH

10:21

not only sustain that

10:23

internship, but but parlay that into

10:26

the faith and trust that the organization placed

10:29

in you. I think you give me a

10:32

little too much credit on the wrestling front too, because

10:34

I I I did wrestle. I

10:37

did wrestle at Harvard. I mostly started

10:39

out my my freshman year practicing

10:42

with the wrestling team because I knew somebody

10:44

on the team and I thought that would be a good way to stay stay

10:46

in shape for football. UM.

10:49

I actually because of injuries, I ended

10:51

up actually getting a chance

10:53

to represent the

10:56

represent the Crimson Um

10:59

and on on a few occasions.

11:01

But it was kind of

11:03

the same, kind of the same as

11:06

UH as with football. It actually did not UM

11:09

do it in my senior year, so I was

11:11

just kind of on the periphery

11:13

there well. We'll be the judge of that. The

11:15

more time that goes by, the greater your career

11:18

in athletics will become. At least that's how

11:20

it works with most of our guests on the

11:22

podcast. I tend

11:25

to try to keep it grounded, uh and kind

11:28

grounded him real, Um,

11:30

you're good like that. What what kind of

11:32

of businessman was your dad and what did

11:34

you learn from from him growing up

11:36

alongside a grocery man? Well,

11:39

my dad, actually, uh,

11:41

he was, Um, he was in the

11:43

grocery business and he worked for

11:45

for most of my youth,

11:48

he was working for a local chain in West Virginia.

11:51

Uh that he had started out. He never

11:53

went to college. He started out uh

11:55

basically bagging groceries for

11:58

this chain when he was a teenager and worked his

12:00

way up. By the time uh

12:02

that I was very young, he

12:05

was he was the chief buyer for the

12:07

the chain of I believe it was about eight

12:10

stores throughout central uh

12:12

central and southern West Virginia. And

12:15

so, uh, you know, definitely

12:17

from him, I saw saw

12:20

how someone who worked hard took advantage

12:22

of opportunities and and he

12:25

you know, he was a person of integrity.

12:27

People trust. People knew that he was good

12:29

for his word and trusted him

12:32

and uh, and so

12:35

spending you know, seeing that example

12:37

and seeing how uh

12:39

that even without the college degree, that

12:42

you know that that hard

12:44

work to pay off and by

12:46

just doing things the right way. That's

12:48

I think that's the basic takeaway there. Uh.

12:51

He ended up working with a couple of different

12:54

companies for the second and third

12:56

act in his career. The eighties were

12:58

tough back home in West

13:00

Virginia, and that chain ended up going

13:03

going under midway

13:05

through my teenage years, which

13:07

actually led to one of the one of the neatest

13:10

um one of the neatest things from

13:12

an experience standpoint that I had as a

13:14

as a young man. Uh, it

13:17

was certainly tough that that chain had gone

13:20

under, and that for

13:22

for a brief time that my dad

13:24

was looking around for work he

13:27

ended up getting because he was

13:29

experienced, experienced in the grocery business.

13:32

Uh, he ended up getting a job as

13:34

a manager at a local grocery store,

13:38

that my hometown grocery store, and

13:40

so he was traveling a lot less and then he

13:42

was you know, uh, he was right

13:44

there down down the street. But

13:47

that also became my first job, and

13:49

so I actually had a chance to I

13:52

got had a chance to see how

13:54

people responded to him, and

13:57

uh, you know he he actually went by

13:59

um the name Royd and a lot of people don't uh.

14:02

Roy Rogers was what people knew

14:04

him as. Uh and so

14:08

uh you know people

14:10

these days that that that reference doesn't really

14:12

resonate as much. But back then, uh,

14:15

back then that did famous singing cowboy

14:17

or famous singing cowboy. But

14:20

but a couple of people when I

14:22

first started working there, the couple

14:24

of the guys that would call me roy Boy and

14:27

so uh but actually um

14:30

uh it was a proud association.

14:33

So he actually actually

14:36

after about a year of working together,

14:38

he actually got an opportunity with

14:40

another uh national

14:43

chain where he was going to be their their rep and

14:46

again back traveling. But it was a

14:48

good opportunity. So I stated

14:50

that grocery store through high school graduation.

14:53

Um, but that was that was a neat

14:55

experience. My first job was a chance

14:57

to to spend more time with

15:00

my dad and to see him in action. What

15:02

are some of your early memories from the wild

15:05

weld wild wild wild West

15:07

days of Carolina Panther football,

15:09

Rob Uh, it's I

15:13

mean wild wild West. I

15:16

mean the Hall of Fame game, the first

15:18

game, first game ever, only my second

15:20

NFL game that I've ever been been

15:23

too. I was in the in the

15:25

coaching booth with our with our staff,

15:28

helping them track stuff, and so

15:30

that was that was just a

15:32

kind of a really strange experience

15:35

and everything. Plus you know, the

15:37

Hall of Fame game being up there, uh,

15:40

you know in Canton with the field

15:43

and everything, it's kind of a kind of a different

15:45

type of experience for an NFL game.

15:48

And so that was pretty neat. I

15:50

was against Jacksonville, you know, to expansion

15:53

teams. Um. I figured since

15:55

you know, things weren't difficult enough being expansion

15:58

teams, they decided that year to let us play two one

16:00

games instead of uh and for US twenty one

16:02

road games instead of instead

16:05

of twenty. But that was neat.

16:07

Um. The first win against the

16:09

Jets, uh, Sam

16:11

Sam Mills, you know, get with with with

16:13

the pick six and that that was

16:17

that was phenomenal. The four game wins dreak

16:19

that year, which was you know, crazy,

16:22

uh going

16:24

out and you know, I believe we

16:26

beat New England in New England, beat San Francisco

16:29

in San Francisco. Uh.

16:32

Edit that out if I'm wrong with

16:34

my memories fuzzy. But but

16:37

no, it's just uh uh just

16:41

it was. It was thrilling and

16:43

it was exciting. We were we were, as

16:45

I said earlier, we were making a lot of it up

16:48

as we went along, which which

16:51

was very much.

16:53

Uh. It

16:56

kept things interesting on you know, from

16:58

day to day. On topic for

17:00

Rob Rodgers on our podcast, we're talking

17:03

with the Panthers Executive director of Player of Finance

17:05

and Football Research a k A.

17:07

CAP guy. The salary cap is

17:10

a complex, almost a living

17:13

organism. It changes, its nuanced

17:16

and it's um Its concepts can be elusive.

17:19

How did your mastery of the salary cap begin?

17:22

Um? It began.

17:27

I had spent the first four years working

17:29

with Dumb and his staff, as I said before,

17:32

UM when when

17:34

Dumb was

17:37

was replaced after the ninety season and George

17:39

Sefer came in, Uh,

17:41

Marty Hernie was taking

17:43

over as our director of football Operations,

17:46

who would basically, uh, George

17:49

would basically be the the person

17:51

who's making things work for George

17:54

and so forth. He also had a background,

17:56

uh from from his days with the Chargers

17:59

and contract negotiations. Salary

18:01

cap management very well respected

18:03

for that around the league. He had been there

18:05

at the beginning with the salary cap when

18:08

it was first put in place in there in the

18:10

early nineties. Uh so

18:13

he and I, Uh he had actually been

18:15

there during the season, uh

18:17

so because he had come in as

18:19

our contract negotiator, negotiator

18:23

and when the nine season rolled

18:25

around, with Georgia's first year, uh

18:28

he asked at the end of that season,

18:31

uh if I wanted to move move over

18:34

and start working in the front office rather

18:36

than rather

18:38

than uh, stay with the coaching

18:41

staff. And so it

18:43

it opened the door to a

18:46

different challenge, a different experience. And

18:49

so I started working with Marty and ninety

18:51

nine and

18:54

uh, you know, learning the salary cap,

18:56

learning about player negotiations. Uh

18:59

continued to dabbled

19:01

and some of the other stuff a little bit with

19:04

the with interacting

19:06

with the I T Department on some of the things that we were

19:08

developing and working on on the

19:10

football side. But the

19:12

salary cap stuff became more of

19:14

a primary thing as each year went by,

19:18

began to get more and more involved

19:20

in the contract negotiations. Uh.

19:23

You know, some starting with low hanging

19:25

fruit. Um I actually

19:27

uh you know, there's

19:30

a player seventh

19:32

round pick in that

19:35

I actually remember like standing

19:37

at a pay phone on my honeymoon in

19:39

London, UH call calling

19:41

the agent you know too, because he

19:43

had left a message and I was, you

19:46

know, in the middle of talks and that was my

19:48

first, you know, first draft deal that I did, and

19:50

so uh so that But

19:56

as by the time we got to two thousand

19:58

two, when UM,

20:00

when John Fox was hired Marty became the

20:02

general manager. Around

20:05

that time frame, I started

20:08

moving more into the primary

20:11

role of negotiating

20:13

contracts, still working with Marty through through

20:16

the years of managing the cap

20:19

UH player finance and UH

20:22

negotiating contracts. So it

20:25

wasn't like it happened overnight. UM.

20:27

First off, I had someone to learn from who

20:30

really understood all the nuances of it, UM.

20:33

And then from

20:35

from there it was just about building a lot

20:37

of this is about building relationships, building

20:40

relationships and with agents,

20:43

building relationships internally

20:45

UM, and getting

20:48

getting ourselves to the point where or getting

20:50

yourself to the point where, UM,

20:53

you have you have a good process in place in

20:56

order to be able to get and get us

20:58

to the right place UH with

21:00

each contract, because each one takes on a kind of

21:02

a life of its own. Does your calm, even

21:05

disposition as well as your intellect

21:08

help you deal with these crazy agents? Calm

21:11

you in disposition? You you don't think I'm

21:13

like a screamer and yeller or

21:15

anything. I could. I do not,

21:18

but I could miss be misreading it. I

21:21

have all and that may

21:23

be something I inherited from my dad to uh

21:26

is that I've I've always been

21:29

more more common and even

21:31

killed. Um. I don't know if it's

21:33

a help war hinders. It's just me

21:36

and I'll say this. I

21:39

I think that just like any

21:41

facet of life, I've had people ask me, you know,

21:43

what's it like dealing with agents? Blah blah blah.

21:46

And I think, just like any

21:48

facet of life, there there's

21:50

a whole range of people that you meet

21:52

and a whole range of people that you're dealing with that

21:55

run the gamut from uh

21:57

boy, this is a really good guy, like you know,

22:00

just sitting sometimes talking on the phone. And some

22:02

of these guys I've talked to for two decades

22:04

now, and so I

22:07

know about different points in their lives, and

22:09

you know, the conversations about

22:11

kids will come up, uh

22:14

good, you know, good times, bad

22:16

times. I've I've have had different

22:18

conversations about that, and

22:20

and so they're there are guys people

22:23

like that that you develop

22:25

relationships with, you get to know them, you think

22:27

that they're good, good guys. Um.

22:30

And then there's some people that are a little a

22:32

little more mm

22:35

nettlesome uh or a

22:37

little more prickly if

22:40

you if

22:42

you will. But but

22:44

uh, I think that range is there and anything that

22:46

you're dealing with in life and uh and

22:49

so I there's no cookie cutters, there's

22:51

no stamp. Uh. You know, from that standpoint,

22:54

you've been listening to one of the most elusive

22:57

guests that we've ever gotten on the podcast,

22:59

Blue Fend two to have been gotten

23:01

onto the boat with less effort than it took to get

23:03

Rob Rogers up here into the studio. Thank

23:06

you for your time, Thank you for your contributions to

23:08

the Carolina Panthers. We'll

23:11

continue our historical perspective of

23:13

the first quarter century of Panthers football

23:16

next time right here on the podcast.

23:20

Okay,