Was this Panthers tweet a subtle 3-28 Super Bowl troll of the Falcons?

By Nunzio Ingrassia
Published

The Carolina Panthers appeared to tweet a benign message Tuesday in which they sent a photo of Cam Newton, Kelvin Benjamin, Derek Anderson and Jonathan Stewart and included the message “TEAM” with Carolina’s motto #KeepPounding.

But in the tweet, the Panthers tagged only Anderson and Stewart. So why them and not the offensive stars of the team?

To add further intrigue, the team deleted the tweet shortly before 1 p.m. ET. Here's a screen shot of the original:






 

One eagle-eyed fan zoomed in on the players’ numbers.

https://twitter.com/Chris_Barlow57/status/846719449629708288

Then pointed out the team tagging just those two players.

https://twitter.com/Chris_Barlow57/status/846724535965663235

3-28.

Don’t get it? Could this be the most subtle jab at the Atlanta Falcons’ Super Bowl halftime lead that they blew in historic fashion to the New England Patriots earlier this year? It was a thing elsewhere Tuesday on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/TotalProSports/status/846704842026467328

Now, this could be just referencing to Tuesday’s date – March 28. But the Panthers’ most recent tweets with the KeepPounding hashtag make no mention of the day’s date.

https://twitter.com/Panthers/status/845993039059468288

https://twitter.com/Panthers/status/845473056676102144

https://twitter.com/Panthers/status/843434630405677056

https://twitter.com/Panthers/status/843297964915412992

And the team deleting the tweet is also quite curious. Coincidence?

The Patriots didn't forget about the occasion.

https://twitter.com/Patriots/status/846824379556204544