How many true, lifelong Panthers fans are actually out there?

[Salvo]

I'm 27. Born and raised in LA so my team was the Raiders. I wasn't going to cheer for an Oakland team, so I was teamless during the '95 season. Never saw the Panthers until the next season because they weren't on local TV much, if at all. Don't remember which game it was, but when I first saw Carolina play, they were in their home black uniforms and just loved that unique look. Started following them at that point on and fortunately, they were actually pretty good in '96!

 

Hooked ever since...

[TheRumGone]

Is there some kind of dirty bird past that we don't know about? Go on, it's safe here. (it's not safe here at all)

I already posted mine. Sig and I have a love/hate relationship

[YourMomsLover]

Here's me back in 1996 after my first game

And here's me carrying my daughter on my shoulders during the preseason Steelers game in 2013

[CoastalCat]

I already posted mine. Sig and I have a love/hate relationship

 

Read down to that one after my reply. My bad. I didn't mean it. Sometimes I just say things in the heat of the moment. Last year, my wife got on me about not mowing the grass, and I just yelled "YOU'RE A FALCONS FAN!!!"

 

She's still in counseling....

[Omega Atrocity]

Yeah I'm 21 and always been a Panthers fan.

[SIGCHI222]

This circle jerk thread rivals the la'el Collins press conference.

So here ya go sig you fugin western bitch goob troop;

I grew up in the Bay Area and was as big of a fan as a 5-9 year old could possibly be. I didn't understand the game but. Rice and Young. Loved the way young played the game. Still have my rice jersey that my dad got me in candlestick when I was 6 yrs old.

Moved to NC and followed the panthers because they were on TV. I remember loving Greene and thinking the unis were cool. Didn't became a considerable fan til smitty in 03, sat through the delhomme meltdown and watched every game in 2010. Thought about just never watching football again. Then September 11th 2011 in Arizona happened. And my fandom exploded.

My knowledge of the Panthers has increased exponentially because of this site.

 

Thank you for the response...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...you hairy-back, no-drivin', booger-pickin', son of a goat, Boon Goon.

 

 

 

 

P.S.  What is a circle jerk?

 

[L-TownCat]

83 kid here, I never cared for anything that wasn't in NC.  I was a retarded Hornets/Heels fan.  We would visit Atlanta to see the Braves but, baseball.

 

Then the Panthers came.  That changed the world for me.

[Johnny Rockets]

9 pages in and no "Cam brought me here" posts?

 

Come on...you know you are out there. 

[Nick_81]

I'm 34.  I've been a lifelong football fan.  More a fan of certain players, than a particular team.  Most of the time, the only games on TV were Redskins, or Cowboys games.  I hated Dallas, so I would always cheer for the Redskins when they played.  If there was even a slight alliance to any team, it was terminated as soon as the announcement was made, that the Carolinas were getting a team.

[SIGCHI222]

My 1st game, was in death valley vs the Broncos.

 

Me too.

 

[joeyxfresco]

I was a Cowboys fan just because I live in Austin and that's all that was around me. Then when I was 12 the 2003 playoff run happened and I automatically jumped shipped. I used to know every single person on the roster that season. Something about Peppers and Smitty had me intrigued

[Panther53521]

Me too.

 

 

I was there .. front row of the endzone on the Panthers locker room side.

[*FreeFua*]

Fan since day 1.

I'm 27, so I was 7 when the Panthers came into the league. I liked the idea of following a team right from the beginning. I guess before the Panthers, the Chargers and that sweet lighting bolt on their helmets appealed to me but since I was 4-6 years old I didn't really have a team since I was so young.

Living in Winnipeg the Panthers weren't televised very much obviously. Watching the ticker at the bottom of the screen was how I'd spend 3 hours every Sunday.

[Moorgan]

OK I'll share my story. I'm a fan of the Panthers because of Madden.

 

I grew up in NY and my father is a Giants fan...so I was a Giants fan. Went to games and the whole deal. Saw them play Denver the year they beat Denver in the SB (1987 maybe?). Anyways, I joined the Army in 1995 and was stationed in Germany for the next 3 years. I had almost zero connection to sports throughout all of that time.

 

So when I cam back from Germany I was stationed at Fort Bragg, NC. Still no connection to sports...I was raising a very young family and was doing Army stuff all the time. 9/11 happened and we started doing 24 hour a day operations. I was on night shift for many months. It got very dull. So I brought my play station in and would play at night as opposed to staring at the wall. I got Madden in the summer of 2002. It asked what team I wanted to play and I didn't know anyone on the Giants. It had been maybe a decade since I pulled for them. So I decided to play the home town team (plus I had never heard of them). Apparently they were coming off a 1-15 season. But they were getting the Defensive coach from the Giants. So I said ok. I'll play them. Won the SB of course and really learned who all the players were.

 

So when I actually saw them on tv I felt like I knew them already. I didn't care that they weren't very good the year before. It just felt sort of novel I guess jumping back into sports and knowing all of the players on this team without having watched any of them ever play. So then I just started watching them play. It helped that they were always on tv locally. They were so so that year in 2002 but they were fun to watch and I was hooked.

 

So my then wife worked at the base ticket place that gets soldiers deals on trips and things then next year (2003 season). The base had a trip that went to every Panther home game on a bus from base. They needed someone to chaperone the trip and they would get a free ticket to the game. So I naturally volunteered and went to every home game during the Cardiac Cats season. It was electric and I've been a rabid fan ever since.

 

TLDR - I played Madden in 2002 and that made me a Panther fan...also Army.