Meet the Panthers W hen a panther stalks its prey it patiently watches and waits for the perfect moment to strike Then it pounces with awesome power and speed This is how the Carolina Panthers play football They are intelligent quick and dangerous The Panthers can score from anywhere on the field and their defense is always on the attack Playing this type of football takes great confidence and talent That’s not a problem for the Panthers The team looks for players with special skills who understand that they can be most successful when working toward the same goal This has always been the winning formula for Carolina This book tells the story of the Panthers They are talented they are smart and they are patient In other words the Panthers live up to their name every time they take the field The Panthers always come to play hard and to win Jonathan Stewart watches as Steve Smith and Cam Newton celebrate a great play during the 2011 season 5
Glory Days T here was a time in the National Football League NFL when the Carolinas North and South were not considered a good place to put a team A businessman named Jerry Richardson believed the exact opposite He knew that fans in the area were eager to get their own NFL team He made it his mission to turn that wish into reality Richardson convinced the league that Charlotte North Carolina was the perfect city for a new team The fans agreed When they heard about Richardson’s plan more than 40,000 of them promised to buy season tickets Construction began on a beautiful new stadium and the Panthers took the field for the first time in 1995 The Panthers built their team by selecting unwanted players from other teams and finding young stars in the draft The first 6
player signed by the Panthers was a speedy defensive back named Rod Smith Their quarterback was rookie Kerry Collins Carolina left no stone unturned One of the players cut in the team’s first training camp was Bill Goldberg He went on to become a champion in professional wrestling Carolina’s first coach was Dom Capers He immediately turned the Panthers into a great defensive team Linebacker Sam Mills was the team’s leader on the field He returned an interception for a touchdown against the New York Jets to give the Panthers their first victory Carolina won seven games in all that first year including four in a row No expansion team had ever done that before In 1996 the Panthers added four key players linebacker Kevin Greene receiver Muhsin Muhammad running back Tim Biakabutuka and tight end Wesley Walls They joined a talented roster that included Eric Davis Lamar Lathon Michael Bates and John Kasay Amazingly the Panthers went 12 4 during the regular LEFT Kerry Collins warms up before a game ABOVE Sam Mills gets a hug from a teammate 7
