Hey, y’all, I know it’s been awhile…… so here I am, holed
up in my house in Winston-Salem with no internet access (thanks, stupid sleet).
I’m going to try to get this posted before the NFC Championship Sunday night.
Ok, so I’m sure y’all saw the Facebook post that a
Seattle Seahawks fan made last week following the ‘hawks loss to the Panthers
Sunday. You know, the one where the fan calls Cam Newton “classless” for
throwing a 12th Man flag (which someone had thrown at him) after the
game. In her post, she says that Newton disrespected not only the team, but its
fans; fans that are an extra special community because of the team’s service
work and fan dedication.
I’m not going to do what a lot of people did, which is
make fun of her earnestness (her team just dropped a close game ending their
season, y’all), or question her level of fandom, which isn’t fair. Yeah, okay,
the Seahawks have picked up some new fan attention because of their recent
success. Yeah, okay, it’s easy to dismiss them as a bandwagon. Yeah, okay, their
colors are a little eye-searing for the uninitiated.
The reason I’m not going to do that is that I’ve had all
of that said about my team. And it sucks. I’m not going to do that to someone
else.
When the Panthers played in the Super Bowl in 2004, we
faced a little bit of an attitude. I don’t take it personally now because I’ve
seen it happen in every sport, every season. There’s this perception that one
team and its fans deserve the championship more than the other. A lot of it is
basic story-telling: it’s human nature to want your winner to have overcome
obstacles and adversity. It’s not as emotionally satisfying when the winner is
a young team whose ups and downs aren’t widely known outside its fan base. I
get it.
In 2004, that young team was the Panthers. Which is why I
can tell you from personal experience that having basically the entire sports
commentary world, at-large fans, and people who only watch football one Sunday
out of the year ALL writing off your team because, meh, they just don’t feel it
– SUCKS. There’s no way to argue against it. It’s illogical and unfair.
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| L-R: Uncle David, my Dad, Uncle Ric |
Let me tell you a little about my family and me. My dad
and his brothers were Redskins fans growing up like most NFL fans in this area.
When we landed an expansion team, they each bought two PSLs because they were
so excited to finally have a home team of their own. My parents, my two aunts
and uncles, commuted to Clemson the fall of 1995 for their inaugural season.
Then in 1996, my mom took me to my first NFL game in the new stadium in
Charlotte, where I watched the Panthers beat the 49ers and became a fan for
life.
The Panthers gave my family a lot of memories over the
next 20 years. The bad years, when the nicest thing I can say is that at least
there wasn’t a line for the beer in the stadium. Sitting in the rain during
that streak of 15 straight losses because my family doesn’t believe in leaving
if there’s time on the clock. Crying because I lost my Fred Lane autograph.
But it’s the good times I remember best: standing on my
seat in Section 529 to see Ricky Proehl catch that pass at the end of the
Jacksonville game (you know the one I mean). Every Monday Night game where we
gave Brad Hoover the ball. But what’s so much more special to me now are the
things that didn’t happen on the field. All those afternoons with my family and
our friends. Making new friends with the fans who also had season tickets in
our section. Most off all for me, talking with my Uncle Ric between plays about
anything – advice dealing with a coworker, whether I should refinance my house.
My Uncle Ric passed away last February after a long
battle with cancer. I have a lot more that I want to say about him another
time, but for now what you need to know is that he was a massive Panthers fan. In literally every post-1995 picture I have of him, he's wearing Panther blue.
Last fall, during the first game in October,
the Panthers invited my family to be on the field during pre-game. It was my
parents’ 30th anniversary; it was my dad’s first season going to
Panthers games without his youngest brother. And whenever our family looks back
on these moments, they are inseparable from the Carolina Panthers. This team is
part of my family.
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| My Dad and Uncle David with Ricky Proehl, who was my Uncle Ric's favorite player and is now a wide receivers coach. It was incredibly gracious of him to take time before the game to talk. |
And the thing is? EVERY team has fans like us. Every team
has fans like my youngest sister, who went to her first game in elementary
school and is now a season ticket holder. Pictured: proof.
Every team has a Sam Mills, a Ricky
Proehl catch, a Steve Smith, a Chad Cota interception. Every team has entire
seasons where the national TV shows aren’t around, where the cameras pan across
the stands during the game and there’s no one there – almost no one. Every team always has somebody there.
I want the Panthers to win Sunday against the Cardinals. I
want them to win the Super Bowl because this team is special in the way they
trust one another, in the way they’ve learned to adjust, and in how they’ve
become the best team in the NFL. But if the Cardinals win Sunday, I would never
suggest that they don’t deserve it. Or that their fans don’t deserve it.
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| This. It feels like this. |
Every fan deserves this. If you’re a sports fan, I
genuinely hope that one day you get to experience what Panthers fans have had
the privilege of experiencing. I hope you get to feel how my dad, my sisters
and I felt last Sunday getting to see our team win a playoff game in person.
(Except for Falcons fans. Kidding! Not really…… okay, but only after Matt Ryan
leaves, because he’s the literal worst.)
Every fan deserves a team they can think of as family.
And if you’re a fan, if you’re spending time and money involving yourself with
a team and you don’t have that – I’m
really sorry, because you’re missing out.
#KeepPounding
#EmbraceTheDay
Thanks to Elizabeth for the pictures!
