Panthers

Five Signature Moments from Carolina Panthers History

Don't let the picture fool you! It's not all Cam, Cam, Cam! Other Panthers get their sliver of the spotlight as well.

The following countdown of five signature moments in Panthers history actually contains between 10 and 15 “moments,” depending on how you define a “moment” and how you classify some tangential events which are discussed but not explicitly considered “signature.”

I’m as surprised as you are by the sheer quantity of moments. I meant to get this team done quickly and fire them off in late summer. But Panthers history, while brief, is strange. And the most memorable events are clustered around a handful of important games and unforgettable characters.

5. Lamar Latham Lays the Wood

Date: January 5th, 1997.

The Cowboys have always been a team that can upstage you by losing to you. That was especially true during the 1996 season, when they were the Wowboys in melodramatic decline, while the Panthers were a second-year expansion team whose biggest stars were aging defensive mercenaries like Kevin Greene and Sam Mills.

Now we can write the epitaph on the Cowboys' season, which began last March with a knock on the door of a suburban Dallas hotel. The knockers were police officers, and inside were two self-employed models, drug paraphernalia and [Michael] Irvin, a married man and the father of two. From there things went downhill for the Cowboys. Irvin pleaded no contest to a felony charge of cocaine possession, and the NFL suspended him and defensive end Shante Carver for five and six games, respectively, for violating the NFL substance-abuse policy. – Peter King, Sports Illustrated, January 1997.

Fans who held up CONVICTS VS. CAROLINA banners during the Panthers’ first-ever playoff appearance were granted the spectacle they craved, as multiple Cowboys stars were knocked out of the game by Panthers haymakers, the most devastating of which were delivered by linebacker Lamar Lathon.

I remember Lamar Lathon just took the whole game over, between him and Kevin Greene. I remember a couple hits he put on – one specific on Deion Sanders, and then on Michael Irvin. I think he put both guys out of the game with vicious hits. Our defense was just amazing in that game. We were solid on offense, but we had one of the best defenses in the NFL. – Muhsin Muhammad, via Joseph Person, The Athletic, September 7th, 2018.

Muhammad misremembered the Sanders hit. Lathon was nowhere near Primetime on that play, though he did wallop an already-ailing Troy Aikman after he pitched the ball away. Here’s a clearer account from a game story:

For Irvin, the continuous taunting for his role in a tawdry sex-and-drug scandal about a year ago and for whatever part (if any) he played in another such case last week, was nothing compared to the pain inflicted on him by Carolina linebacker Lamar Lathon. On Dallas' first drive, Irvin gained 22 yards on a slant pass before Lathon drove him into the ground shoulder-first.

Irvin's right collarbone snapped like a dry twig. Escorted to the locker room, television cameras caught him kneeling, head bowed, either in desperate prayer or excruciating pain. When next he was seen, it was the third quarter. Irvin was strolling towards his bench wearing a spicy mustard-yellow suit, his right arm in a sling, eyes encased in sunglasses.

Sanders wasn't nearly as lucky.

Subbing for Irvin at wide receiver, Sanders ran 16 yards on a reverse, at the end of which was a free overnight stay at the Carolinas Medical Center. Four Panthers slammed Sanders face down to the turf. Miniscule linebacker Sam Mills did the most damage, applying a blow to his head that knocked Sanders silly, although a CAT scan proved negative.

Quarterback Troy Aikman played the whole way despite retreating to the sidelines to have his calf tightly wrapped after taking a couple of shots from the ever-present Lathon. Linebacker Darrin Smith trudged off the field, seemingly oblivious to the thin river of blood running down his right arm. Fullback Darryl Johnston left the locker room with a berg-sized ice bag taped to his right elbow. – Jim Ducibella, The Virginian-Pilot, January 6th, 1997.

In Philly, we might call a beating like this a Body Bag Game. In “Carolina,” where they are a little too polite for such appellations, it was a reason to adopt a still-new team that represented a vast geographic region and had just hopscotched from Clemson to Charlotte. It made a star of Lathon and helped make Hall of Famers of Greene and Mills. It gave the Panthers a gritty workaday personality that they maintained until they drafted an icon and entertainer. And it knocked the Cowboys for a loop from which they still have not recovered

''The Dallas Cowboys are America's Team, sure,'' said Panthers linebacker Lamar Lathon, who had eight tackles and one sack. ''But we're the new kids on the block.'' – Timothy W. Smith, New York Times, January 6th, 1997.

4. What’s That Bear Doing?

Date: September 13th, 2020.

The year was 2020. The pandemic introduced us to NFL football in empty stadiums and team mascots dancing with themselves. The sight of three fellas chatting side-by-side felt almost novel, if not a little scandalous. Some of us forgot how to interact with our peers during those long pandemic months. Robbie Chosen (Robby Anderson at the time), DJ Moore and Curtis Samuel were NOT the best individuals to teach us how to do so again.

Panthers wide receiver Robby Anderson is currently in his first year with the team, and although he seems to have already familiarized himself with Carolina's offense, there are some team-related things he's not so familiar with just yet. For instance, it seems that Anderson had no idea that the Carolina Panthers mascot is a panther, and we know that because the team released a hilarious video this week.

At some point during the team's 34-30 loss to the Raiders on Sunday, Anderson saw Sir Purr -- the Panthers mascot -- on the big screen at Bank of America Stadium, and for some reason, Anderson thought he was looking at a bear, which led to a very interesting conversation with fellow receiver D.J. Moore.

Although most mascots would probably be offended if they found out someone on their team mistook them for another species, that wasn't the case with Sir Purr.

The Panthers mascot actually seems to be embracing Anderson's mistake. After the video above went viral this week, Sir Purr decided to change his Twitter name to "I'm That Bear." – Excerpted from John Breech, CBS Sports, September 17th, 2020.

You could write comedy for 20 years and never come up with something so aridly hilarious as this conversation, punctuated by Chosen’s exasperated headshake at the end. He’s convinced that he’s the only non-crazy one.

Since Cam Newton’s departure, the Panthers have been suffering through a non-stop identity crisis. But Sir Purr, like Thanos, is inevitable. Bad luck, after all, is powerless against a black cat.

And the Panthers now employ a wide receiver who talks like Chosen, Samuel and Moore all by himself, with a little bit of Gambit thrown in:

3. Luke Keuchly’s Playoff Pick-6s

Dates: January 17th, 2016; January 24th, 2016.

Few plays are more exciting in football than the interception return for a touchdown, the pick-six. For one team, 6 points come out of nowhere; for the other, hope turns to despair.

And should the Carolina Panthers’ standout linebacker Luke Kuechly be in the right place at the right time on Sunday, he could do something no one has done: complete a pick-six in every playoff game all the way through the Super Bowl.

An all-American and the ninth overall draft pick out of Boston College in 2012, Kuechly is a three-time N.F.L. first team All-Pro and regularly rated as the best linebacker in the game.

“What more could you ask for than a guy to come in and take the league by storm?” Panthers tight end Greg Olsen said. “He’s a special player. He’s been as good as there is on the defensive side of the ball since he’s come in the league.”

Evan Mathis, a Denver Broncos guard, said: “I think it starts with Kuechly. He is pretty much the quarterback of their defense. He gets them in the right positions.”

Kuechly tied his career high with four interceptions in the regular season and had his first for a touchdown, off Tony Romo.

Then, in the divisional round of the playoffs, with the Panthers leading the Seahawks by 7-0, Russell Wilson came under pressure and tossed it right to Kuechly, who ran it in from 14 yards. In the conference championship the next week, against Arizona, with the score 42-15, and the game won, Kuechly jumped in front of receiver John Brown and ran back a 22-yarder. – Victor Mather, New York Times, February 4th, 2016.

Kuechly was everywhere in the 2010s. He led the NFL in tackles twice and finished with over 100 in every year of his career. He intercepted 18 regular-season passes and three more in the playoffs, including the two we are discussing now. His career overlapped almost perfectly with Cam Newton’s Panthers career, and the Panthers’ fortunes in the 2010s rose and fell with both of them.

Unfortunately, Kuechly did not record the Super Bowl interception Mather speculated about above. He did blast through the A-gap to sack Peyton Manning, but it was the Broncos defense that would make history in Super Bowl 50. An interception, and/or a Panthers victory, would have shortened Kuechly’s wait in the Pro Football Hall of Fame queue. But then, lots of things would have turned out differently had the Panthers won that game.