The early, early, early days of the Carolina Panthers

I went to the very first game, the Bronco's preseason game. Sat in the end zone area. I remember being 10 feet from Elway and thinking how sad it was that he was never gonna get a ring. Oops.

Went to the ATL game that year too. Collins had that 86 yard pass to Willie Green in the 4th quarter that gave us the lead for good. We caught the extra point but my friend got nacho cheese all over his jeans. The asshole ATL fans that had been yappin all day abruptly left. It was hilarious at the time, because we figured we had knocked them out of the playoffs but they miraculously beat SF the next week and snuck in.

Those were the days...

 

I was at the Denver preseason game, Rams, Jets and 49ers game that first year. The drive home after all of them was brutal.

Went to the Chicago presason game (first one in the stadium) and the Falcons. I ended up buying PSLs halfway through the season. I bought them the week of or the week before the Giants night game. The guy told me I might get tickets to that game but I didn't get my tickets until the next game. Only missed one since, that Pats game from 1-15, and the only reason I missed that was I had a fever of 101....

 

Lucky!

 

me3

 

I went to 2 games that year (Jets & Rams) . . . I took US-123 out of Clemson all the way to Greenville, then hit I-585 to I-85. I avoided the mess at Exit 19 (?) off if I-85.

Hmmmmmmmmm, I think I have Panthers/Falcons photos from 1996 (1st game at then Ericcsion) Stadium in one of my albums . . .

 

I remember Tim McKyer intercepting that pass and taking it to the house and the Panthers beating the 49ers. For an expansion team to go 7-9 in their first year is amazing especially when we started out something like 0-6. Of course, now we go 7-9 every single year. Anyone else remember that Sunday Night Giants game in '96. I froze my ass off and we won and I got Steve Beurlein's hand warmer.

 

Oh that was SO COLD. And the stupid people behind us brought a FIVE DAY OLD BABY! They wanted her to be the youngest Panther fan to attend a game. They didn't stay for the entire game, but to bring an infant to a freezing night game to "set a stat no one knew about or cared about" was stupid and abusive.