In 1993, the Carolina Panthers became the 29th franchise in the National Football League. However, the team wouldn’t begin play in Charlotte, North Carolina until the 1995 NFL season. Since 1995, the club has made the NFL playoffs on eight different occasions, and have won the NFC Championship twice. Here are 5 ferocious Carolina Panthers facts.
5 Facts About the Carolina Panthers
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- During the 2012 NFL season, the Carolina Panthers had terrible luck with the opening coin toss. (source) For one long stretch of 13 games during the 2012 season, the Carolina Panthers repeatedly lost the coin toss before kickoff each week. The odds of this happening for thirteen games in a row is one in 8,192! At one point, the streak became so bad that the Panthers were polling fans on social media to see what they should call before each game.
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- Super Bowl XXXI almost featured the Panthers taking on another 2nd-year NFL team. (source) The 1995 season in the National Football League featured two new expansion franchises, with the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars joining the other 30 clubs. In 1996, in what was just the second season for both the Panthers and Jaguars, both teams almost made it to face each other in the Super Bowl. Instead, both Carolina and Jacksonville lost the Conference Championship Games to the Green Bay Packers and New England Patriots respectively.
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- Despite winning the NFC Championship twice, the Carolina Panthers are one of just twelve teams to have never won the Super Bowl. (source) The Panthers won the Conference Championship in both 2003 and 2015, but lost in both of those Super Bowls to the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos. The Carolina Panthers are one of 12 teams to have never won the big game, a group that also includes the Falcons, Cardinals, Bills, Bengals, Browns, Lions, Texans, Jaguars, Chargers, Vikings and Titans.
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- The first ever draft pick in Carolina Panthers history was Rod Smith in the 1995 NFL Expansion Draft. (source) When the National Football League brings a new team into the fold, an Expansion Draft is held. Every other team across the league allows a list of players to be drafted from their franchise, while being able to protect others. The Expansion Draft takes place prior to the regular NFL Draft, and in 1995, the Carolina Panthers used their first expansion draft selection on New England Patriots defensive back Rod Smith. Rod Smith had been selected out of Notre Dame in 1992 to the Patriots, but only played for the Panthers during the 1995 season. After a very short stint with the Minnesota Vikings for part of the 1996 season, Smith would return to the Panthers and play in Charlotte from the end of 1996 through the end of the 1998 season.
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- There are only two former Carolina Panthers players enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. (source) Kevin Greene and Reggie White, two stars on the defensive side of the ball, are the only two former Panthers to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. However, neither player spent much time with the Panthers. Over the course of Kevin Greene’s career from 1985-1999, Greene only spent his final two seasons with Carolina. From 1985-1998, Reggie White spent time with both the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers. He didn’t take the field for the 1999 season, and the Panthers got the legend to come out of retirement for the 2000 NFL season. He played all 16 games that year and retired following the season.
If you’re a fan of the Carolina Panthers or just a fan of the National Football League, do you have any fun facts about the Panthers that you can share? Let us know in the comments!
Featured image photo credit: All-Pro Reels, 2020. Originally found on Wikimedia. Image was resized and cropped. Creative Commons 2.0.
