Team History: Panthers overcame several tragedies to reach two Super Bowls
Team History: Panthers overcame several tragedies to reach two Super Bowls
The Carolina Panthers began to play in the 1995 NFL season. However, football interest in the region dated back into the 1980s.
In 1987, the NBA announced an expansion team called the Charlotte Hornets. Jerry Richardson, a former Baltimore Colts receiver who owned several food service companies, started exploring the possibility of bringing an NFL team to the Carolinas as well. Richardson had the backing of political and business leaders, and three exhibition games played in the area from 1989-91 were all sold out.
Three years before the NFL announced the addition of two expansion teams, Richardson’s bid for the Carolinas (represented by Charlotte) joined Baltimore, Jacksonville, Memphis, and St. Louis as finalists.
Richardson announced that the new stadium would be privately financed through the sale of Permanent Seat Licenses (PSLs), club seats and luxury boxes. All the PSLs sold out on the first day and the league owners unanimously voted for the Carolina entry to be the 29th franchise on October 26, 1993. Jacksonville won the other bid a month later.
The Panthers selected former Patriots cornerback Rod Smith with the second pick of the Expansion Draft and also nabbed fullbacks Howard Griffith and Bob Christian, wide receiver Mark Carrier, nose tackle Greg Kragen, cornerback Tim McKyer, punt returner Eric Guliford and center Curtis Whitley, who all contributed in the 1995 season. The team’s most interesting pick was Bill Goldberg, a defensive lineman who was the first player cut by Carolina. After his release, Goldberg started focusing on wrestling and became a champion in World Championship Wrestling in the late 1990s.
In addition to players left exposed by other teams, Carolina’s roster was filled by former college stars. Penn State quarterback Kerry Collins was taken fifth and the Panthers also added cornerback Tyrone Poole (22nd), tackle Blake Brockermeyer (29th), center and guard Frank Garcia (fourth round) and safety Chad Cota (seventh round).
General manager Bill Polian, who helped assemble the Bills teams that made four straight Super Bowls, utilized free agency, which was not available to prior expansion teams. He signed ex-Bills Don Beebe, Pete Metzelaars, Frank Reich and Carlton Bailey, along with Pro Bowl linebacker Sam Mills and kicker John Kasay.
The Panthers hired former Steelers defensive coordinator Dom Capers as their first head coach. Carolina faced off against fellow expansion team Jacksonville in the Hall of Fame Game in late July. The Panthers won the “Battle of the Big Cats,” 20-14, over the Jaguars.
In their first regular-season game, Carolina held a 13-0 lead, but Atlanta came back to win 23-20 in overtime. The Panthers won their first game against the Jets in Week 7 by a 26-15 score. Carolina ended with a 7-9 record overall, setting a record for most wins by a first-year team. After a season at Clemson Memorial Stadium in South Carolina, the Panthers moved into Ericsson Stadium in uptown Charlotte.
Before the 1996 season, the Panthers signed Steve Beuerlein to backup Collins and also added tight end Wesley Walls and linebacker Kevin Greene in free agency. The Panthers won their final seven games to finish 12-4 and win the NFC West in their second season. On offense, Walls scored 10 touchdowns and Anthony Johnson ran for 1,120 yards. The defense featured four Pro Bowlers. Greene had 14½ sacks, Lamar Lathon added 13½, Mills led the team with 122 tackles and Eric Davis had five interceptions.
Collins threw two touchdown passes and Johnson ran for 104 yards in a 26-17 win over the Cowboys in the Division round. The following week, Carolina took an early lead but Green Bay registered 479 total yards in a 30-13 victory in the NFC Championship Game.
The Panthers missed the playoffs the next two years. They finished 7-9 in 1997 and posted a 4-12 mark in 1998 after starting 0-7. Capers was let go after four seasons and was replaced by George Seifert, who won two Super Bowls with the 49ers and had the highest winning percentage of any coach in NFL history up to that point.
Carolina drafted defensive end Mike Rucker and improved to 8-8 in 1999, but the season was not without issues. Rae Carruth, a first-round pick two years before, was sentenced to 18-24 years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder. Carruth’s girlfriend, Cherrica Adams, was eight months pregnant with his child when he pulled his car alongside hers and known associate, Van Brett Watkins, shot Adams from a separate car.
Adams went into a coma and died at the hospital. The baby survived but had brain damage and cerebral palsy. Carruth fled and was found hiding in the trunk of a car in a hotel parking lot in western Tennessee.
The Panthers went 7-9 the following year and again the team faced tragedy. Running back Fred Lane, an undrafted free agent who spent three seasons with the team before signing with the Colts, was shot and killed by his wife during a domestic dispute.
Carolina’s 2001 season started off with a 24-13 win over the Vikings, but that was definitely the high point. With Chris Weinke at quarterback, the Panthers lost the rest of their games to finish 1-15. Seifert was fired the day after the season ended.
For their third head coach, Carolina hired John Fox, who spent the previous five seasons as the defensive coordinator of the New York Giants. The defense was greatly improved, with second overall pick Julius Peppers joining a defensive line that included Rucker, Kris Jenkins, and Brentson Buckner. Other top draft choices included running back DeShaun Foster and linebacker Will Witherspoon.
The offense was also improved with Rodney Peete at quarterback and Steve Smith joining Muhammad at wide receiver. The Panthers improved to 7-9 in 2002.
Carolina had more bad news before the next season even began. Mills, who was now a coach with the team, announced he had intestinal cancer and linebacker Mark Fields was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease. The team used those struggles as an inspiration on the field. Behind former NFL Europe quarterback Jake Delhomme, the “Cardiac Cats” started 5-0 on their way to an 11-5 record.
After a win over Dallas in the Wild Card game, Carolina faced St. Louis the following week. The teams mostly traded field goals and a 33-yarder by Jeff Wilkins allowed the Rams to tie the score as time expired in regulation. Neither team scored in the first extra session, but Delhomme found Smith with a 69-yard pass on the first play of the second overtime to give the Panthers a 29-23 victory.
The NFC Championship Game was a defensive struggle, but Carolina forced the Eagles into four interceptions in a 14-3 win that propelled the team to its first conference title.
In Super Bowl XXXVIII, the Patriots grabbed a 21-10 lead, but a Foster run and a pass from Delhomme to Muhammad give the Panthers a one-point advantage with 6:53 left. Tom Brady pulled out all the stops, and New England took a 29-22 lead on a pass to linebacker Mike Vrabel (plus Kevin Faulk’s two-point run) with 2:51 remaining.
Delhomme responded by leading Carolina in a march down the field. A seven-play drive culminated in a 12-yard pass to Ricky Proehl to tie the score with 1:13 on the clock. However, that was too much time for Brady, who completed five passes to set up Adam Vinatieri’s 41-yard field goal and a 32-29 New England win.
Smith and running back Stephen Davis suffered injuries early in the 2004 season and the Panthers started 1-7. The defense kept the team in games and Carolina won six of its final eight but still missed the playoffs.
The Panthers went 11-5 in 2005, including a win over the Patriots in Week 2. Carolina shut out the Giants and edged the Bears in the playoffs before Shaun Alexander scored two touchdowns in Seattle’s 34-14 win in the NFC Championship Game.
Carolina missed the playoffs the next two years before drafting running back Jonathan Stewart and tackle Jeff Otah in 2008. The Panthers went 12-4 overall (8-0 at home) and won their third division title after a win over the Saints in the final game. The season came to a disappointing end with a 33-13 loss to the Cardinals in the Division round.
After an 8-8 mark the following year, Delhomme and Peppers left via free agency and Muhammad retired before the 2010 season. With Jimmy Clausen and Matt Moore at quarterback, the Panthers struggled to a 2-14 record. Fox was fired after the last game, and he was replaced by former Bears and Chargers defensive coordinator Ron Rivera.
The silver lining to finishing in last place was Carolina drafting Auburn quarterback Cam Newton with the first pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. The Panthers improved, first to 6-10 and then 7-9 before the club made the playoffs for the first time under Rivera in 2013.
Carolina’s offense was solid with the mobile Newton joined by the “Double Trouble” running pair of Stewart and DeAngelo Williams, All-Pro fullback Mike Tolbert, wide receivers Smith and Brandon LaFell and tight end Greg Olsen. Linebacker Luke Kuechly was an All-Pro after registering 166 tackles and Greg Hardy had 15 sacks.
The Panthers won eight straight games in the middle of the season and earned an NFC South crown with a 12-4 record, but lost to the 49ers in the Division round.
Carolina was mediocre the following season, but so was the rest of the division. At 7-8-1, the Panthers edged out the 7-9 Saints and 6-10 Falcons for the South title. They beat the Cardinals in the Wild Card game before falling to the Seahawks the next week.
In 2015, the Panthers lost receiver Kelvin Benjamin to a torn ACL before the season, but won their first 14 games, which was a record for an NFC team. After a loss to the Falcons, Carolina ended the season with a win over Tampa Bay for a franchise-best 15-1 mark. Newton was named league MVP. He threw for 3,837 yards and 35 touchdowns, and he ran for 10 more scores.
Stewart ran for two touchdowns, Kuechly returned an interception for another and Newton found Olsen to give the Panthers a 31-0 halftime lead in the Division round. Russell Wilson threw three second-half touchdowns to bring the Seahawks back, but Carolina held on for a 31-24 win. A 49-15 victory over the Cardinals the following week gave the Panthers their second NFC Championship.
Denver grabbed an early 10-0 lead in Super Bowl 50 thanks to a Malik Jackson fumble recovery in the end zone. A one-yard run by Stewart cut into the lead, but two Brandon McManus field goals put the Broncos up 16-7 after three quarters. Graham Gano’s 39-yard field goal made it a one-score game before C. J. Anderson’s two-yard run put the game out of reach with 3:08 left. Denver won 24-10 in Peyton Manning’s final game.
The Panthers sandwiched a Wild Card loss to the Saints in 2017 between two losing seasons. Amid a December 2017 Sports Illustrated story alleging sexual harassment and racial discrimination incidents, Richardson announced he was selling the team.
In May 2018, the sale from Richardson to David Tepper, a hedge fund manager and part-owner of the Steelers, was approved by the league. After selling his Pittsburgh shares, Tepper bought the Panthers for $2.2 billion, the highest total in NFL history.
For Rivera’s ninth season, Newton, Olsen, and Gano are joined by dual-threat back Christian McCaffrey. The defense is led by end Mario Addison, tackle Kawann Short, linebackers Kuechly and Shaq Thompson, and cornerback James Bradberry.
-By: Kevin Rakas