It may have taken 20 years, but the Panthers are finally Charlotte's team

[Sam Mills Fan]

There have been a couple of threads about this already, but I want to throw my hat into the ring as well.

It was abundantly clear tonight that this fan base has finally matured. When I was walking to the stadium, I only saw one person wearing a jersey of another team  (Russell Wilson Seahawks jersey). I only heard one jackass driving down the road yell "PANTHERS SUCK!" and I was pleasantly surprised to see 2 guys besides myself flip him off and shout "FUG YOU!" to the guy instead of meekly taking it. There was as much traffic around Mint and Morehead as there has been in the past for last season GAMES, if not more so. There were LONG lines for the bathroom and concessions and for people trying desperately to find a free seat in the lower bowl. There was more energy in that stadium for a PRACTICE than I've seen for a lot of Sunday games as well. 

Cam had the crowd eating out of his hand more so than I've ever seen. When he slowly raised his arms for people to do the wave, by god, 95% of that stadium did just that. People completely ate up the kid with cancer doing the Nae Nae dance with Cam and some others. The crowd roared when Cam did something as simple as complete a curl route to KB for a touchdown.

You know, it was the summer before my 4th grade year when the Panthers played the Jags in the Hall of Fame game. I remember being 9 years old then and the excitement I felt watching a meaningless preseason game (although I don't think I knew it was meaningless at the time.) I'll now be turning 30 during this season and have a daughter of my own. While there are probably some bandwagoners excited because we've made the playoffs in back-to-back to years, you can just FEEL that we have a generational fan base now. Guys in their 30s rocking Sam Mills jerseys with their young kids with Cam and Luke jerseys. A guy next to me randomly talking about Rocket Ismail the Panther to the woman he was with.

The Super Bowl run certainly helped grow the fan base, but a lot of those were bandwagoners that disappeared once things started getting tough in 2006. I don't think that's the case any longer. No point in feeling bothered by fans of other teams. They're just little dust mites in Charlotte now.

I'm just really happy and really proud. It's like being there when a redwood tree is planted and seeing it grow sky high and sprout roots a mile long. What a great fan base we've developed!

[teeray]

You misspelled "Carolina's" in title  ;-)

 

[TheRumGone]

dopest dope

[KJ89]

I felt weirdly proud too. I loved it. It was amazing.

[micnificent28]

nice post.

[Cookie Lyon]

You misspelled "Carolina's" in title  ;-)

 

PREACH!

[SIGCHI222]

I am overwhelmingly proud of tonight's turn out and will die a happy man when we win a Lombardi. 

In the beginning it was more of a joke I didn't laugh at. 

After "96 it should have been a foundation for the greatest franchise ever.

We are 20 years late but I have been here every moment.

When Cam lifts the L this year or next, I will be able to say I was here when the movie started.  I love this team and I like the Huddle more than I should.

 

 

[GRWatcher]

I remember those Clemson days. They were fun! My children were 9 & 11 and we had a blast. They now have growing families of their own.

[RoaringRiot]

"Kid with cancer"? Nice. His name is Braylon. 

[Sam Mills Fan]

"Kid with cancer"? Nice. His name is Braylon. 

I got emotional during the dance. I don't know what this little post is supposed to be implying. That I'm a bad person for not hearing the kid's name over the roar of the crowd? I had cancer myself when I was even younger than Braylon. Don't suggest I don't care about kids like that.

Boy, there's always one.

[PantherRN]

I was 10 when we got the Panthers and was at the first regular season game vs the Rams at Clemson. It's been a long time coming but I felt the same emotions last night. I have a thrid generation Panther fan on the way myself!

I'm proud of our fans for showing up like they did, proud of the players for giving Braylon his dream, and proud to be a fan of a high class franchise who made this all possible. You could tell the players really cared for the little guy and wanted his experience to be special. Really got me in the feels.

[CCS]

The only thing I took away from that post was some douchebag showed up in a Seahawks jersey. 

[bga71]

I had a year left in the Navy and was in San Diego when the Panthers played that first game against Jacksonville, and had to watch the game at a buddy's house because we couldn't get it on the ship.  We deployed to the gulf in September and I missed the whole first season.  The ship printed a one page sports paper with only the scores, so that was my football updates for the season.  I got out in September of '96 and came back to Roseboro, NC and haven't missed a game since.  Even became a step-father and raised two more Panther fans.  Now have two grandsons, 1 and 3, who have Panther jerseys, but don't really know anything about football yet.  But I'm working on it.

[RoaringRiot]

I got emotional during the dance. I don't know what this little post is supposed to be implying. That I'm a bad person for not hearing the kid's name over the roar of the crowd? I had cancer myself when I was even younger than Braylon. Don't suggest I don't care about kids like that.

Boy, there's always one.

I'm implying that referring to him as "kid with cancer" is a shitty way to describe someone. And it is.