Carolina Panthers

• 1. Introduction

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  The Carolina Panthers paid $206 million in 1993 for the right to exist. That was the price Jerry Richardson and his partners paid for an NFL expansion franchise in a region that had never had one. Richardson was not a billionaire industrialist. He was a former wide receiver who had used his 1959 championship bonus to co-found a fast-food chain, and he spent the next three decades building the kind of wealth that could buy a seat at the league's table. The questions the Panthers would spend the next three decades answering were simple and brutal: could a brand-new team in the American South build something lasting? Could a franchise born in 1995 compete with franchises born in 1920? And what does it take to go from a 26-15 win over the New York Jets, the first victory in franchise history, to a Super Bowl appearance in just two years?

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• 2. Richardson's Gamble

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  Jerry Richardson announced his bid for an NFL franchise on the 15th of December, 1987. He was a North Carolina native, and he drew direct inspiration from George Shinn, who had recently landed an NBA expansion team in Charlotte, the Hornets. Richardson formed Richardson Sports, a partnership of family members and businessmen from both Carolinas, and set about proving that the market deserved a team.

  From 1989 to 1991, Richardson Sports staged preseason games across the region. Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh hosted first, followed by Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, and finally Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina. These were not exhibition stunts; they were market research in cleats. The crowds showed up, and the argument became difficult to dismiss.

  On the 26th of October, 1993, the 28 NFL owners voted unanimously to add the Panthers as the league's 29th franchise. Richardson and his partners had already settled on uptown Charlotte as their stadium location. The team's colors, process blue over black, were among the hardest decisions they made. The blue had to sit lighter than Duke's and darker than the University of North Carolina's, splitting the difference between the state's two most prominent basketball programs. That detail alone speaks to how carefully Richardson thought about the politics of a two-state fan base.

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• 3. First Seasons

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  Dom Capers, pulled from his job as Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator, became the franchise's first head coach. The team's very first regular season game ended in a 23-20 overtime loss to the Atlanta Falcons, and after five straight losses the Panthers finally broke through with a 26-15 win over the New York Jets.

  That inaugural season finished with the best record ever recorded by an NFL expansion team in its first year. The following year, 1996, was even more startling: the Panthers went 12-4, won the NFC West, secured a first-round playoff bye, and beat the defending Super Bowl champions, the Dallas Cowboys, 26-17 in the divisional round. They lost the NFC Championship Game to the Green Bay Packers, 30-13, but a team that had not existed three years earlier had reached the final four of its conference.

  The collapse that followed was steep. By 2001, the Panthers lost their last 15 games, tying the NFL record for most losses in a single season. The one significant thing to emerge from that wreckage was the drafting of wide receiver Steve Smith in the third round, a selection that would define the franchise's next decade. Smith would go on to record 12,197 receiving yards across 13 seasons, making him the team's all-time leading receiver.

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• 4. The Super Bowl Chase

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  John Fox arrived as head coach in 2002, the same year the NFL expanded to 32 teams and moved the Panthers from the NFC West to the newly created NFC South. The Panthers' 2002 defense ranked second in the league in yards allowed, but their offense ranked second-worst. That imbalance would be corrected before the following season when the team signed quarterback Jake Delhomme.

  The 2003 season produced the franchise's greatest run. The Panthers beat the Dallas Cowboys 29-10, the St. Louis Rams 29-23, and the Philadelphia Eagles 14-3 to reach Super Bowl XXXVIII. The game against the Patriots finished 32-29. Sportswriter Peter King called it the greatest Super Bowl of all time, describing it as "a wonderful championship battle, full of everything that makes football dramatic, draining, enervating, maddening, fantastic, exciting." Charlotte-based NPR reporter Scott Jagow wrote that the appearance represented the city's arrival on the national stage.

  Fox's tenure ran through 2010, making him the longest-serving head coach in franchise history. His final record of 78-74 in regular season and playoff games combined made him the first Panthers coach to finish with a winning record. The best and worst of his years came in adjacent seasons: the 2008 Panthers won the NFC South and earned a first-round bye, then were eliminated in the divisional round after quarterback Jake Delhomme turned the ball over six times against the Arizona Cardinals.

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• 5. The Newton Era

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  Ron Rivera was hired as head coach in 2011 and used the first overall pick in that year's draft to select Cam Newton from Auburn. Newton won the Heisman Trophy in his final college season and then immediately rewrote the NFL rookie record book. He threw for over 4,000 yards, rushed for over 500 yards, and scored 14 rushing touchdowns, the most ever from a quarterback in a single season. The AP named him Offensive Rookie of the Year.

  The 2015 season stands as the franchise's peak. The Panthers went 15-1 in the regular season, tying the best record in NFC history. Their offense led the entire league in scoring. Newton won the NFL's Most Valuable Player award. In the playoffs, they shut out the Seattle Seahawks 31-0 in the first half of the divisional round and beat the Arizona Cardinals 49-15 in the NFC Championship. Super Bowl 50 ended 24-10 in favor of the Denver Broncos, a defensive struggle that denied Newton and Rivera the title their regular season had seemed to guarantee.

  Rivera's record of 79-67-1 gives him the highest winning percentage of any Panthers head coach. His four playoff appearances and two Super Bowl berths place him well above every other coach who has held the job. Tepper fired him after a home loss to the Washington Redskins in December 2019 sent the team to 5-7.

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• 6. The Keep Pounding Legacy

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  Sam Mills played linebacker for the Panthers from 1995 to 1997, then joined the coaching staff and stayed through 2004. Before the team's 2003 playoff game against Dallas, Mills, who had been diagnosed with cancer, addressed the players and coaches. He told them that when he learned of his diagnosis, he faced a choice between quitting and fighting. "I'm a fighter," he said. "I kept pounding. You're fighters, too. Keep pounding." The phrase became the team's permanent slogan.

  Mills died of cancer in 2005. In 2012, Nike stitched the words "Keep Pounding" into the collar of every Panthers jersey as a tribute. The team also introduced the Keep Pounding Drum that year, a six-foot-tall instrument struck four times before each home game, once for each quarter. The drummers are chosen for having overcome serious adversity; they have included Make-A-Wish children, military veterans, and current and former players.

  The Panthers and the Carolinas HealthCare Foundation established the Keep Pounding Fund in 2003 to support cancer research. The community has raised more than $1.4 million for the fund through auctions, blood drives, and an annual stadium 5k run. Mills remains the only player to have his jersey number, 51, retired by the franchise. His life-sized bronze statue stands outside Bank of America Stadium, alongside one honoring team executive Mike McCormack.

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• 7. Ownership and Instability

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  David Tepper finalized his purchase of the Panthers on the 16th of May, 2018, paying nearly $2.3 billion, a record price at the time. He had been a minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Forbes valued the franchise at approximately $2.3 billion in 2018; by 2023 that estimate had risen to $4.1 billion.

  The Tepper era has been defined by head coaching turnover. Matt Rhule was hired from Baylor in January 2020 and fired 38 games into his tenure with an 11-27 record. Frank Reich was hired in January 2023 after just one season as a head-coaching vacancy and fired in November of that year after going 1-10, with special teams coordinator Chris Tabor finishing the season. The 2023 Panthers went 2-15, the worst record in the league.

  Tepper's most consequential move before the coaching carousel was the trade for the first overall pick in the 2023 draft. The Panthers gave up their 2023 second-round pick, their 2024 first-round pick, their 2025 second-round pick, and wide receiver D.J. Moore to move up from the Chicago Bears' spot. They used the pick on Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young from Alabama. Young's first season produced a 2-15 record. Under Dave Canales, hired in January 2024, the Panthers won the NFC South in 2025 with an 8-9 record, earning their first playoff appearance since 2017 and their first division title since 2015, before losing to the Los Angeles Rams 31-34 in the Wild Card round.

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