2015 NFC Championship Game Appearance

Lore & Background

The NFL awarded the Carolinas its 29th franchise in 1993, and the Panthers began play in 1995 under founder Jerry Richardson. They reached the NFC Championship Game in their second season. The Panthers have won seven division titles and two NFC championships, advancing to Super Bowl XXXVIII after the 2003 season and Super Bowl 50 after the 2015 season, losing both. The 2015 team finished 15–1, and quarterback Cam Newton was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player. In 2025, Carolina won the NFC South with an 8–9 record and returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2017, losing 34–31 to the Los Angeles Rams in the Wild Card Round.

In Their Own Story

The sound of CenturyLink Field was a living thing that night—thousands of voices layered into a single, sustained roar that you felt in your sternum before you heard it. The Panthers huddle was quiet. Newton, jaw set, eyes scanning the field through the gap in the huddle, said almost nothing. He didn't need to. The defense had been telling the story all game long: another sack, another forced fumble, another drive strangled before it could breathe. The Seahawks' sideline was a different animal—shouting, pointing, the energy of a team that had been told all year they were the standard. The Panthers' sideline was calm. The kind of calm that comes from a unit that has already won the war and is simply collecting the bodies. The final score—31 to 24—was almost an afterthought. The real number was the number of times Seattle's offense had been stopped before the line of scrimmage. That was the number that would be whispered in locker rooms across the league for years.

Reader's Guide

The Panthers first competed in the 1995 NFL season; they were one of two expansion teams to begin playing that year, the other being the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Panthers were put in the NFC West to increase the size of that division to five teams; there were already two other southeastern teams in the division, the Atlanta Falcons and the New Orleans Saints. Former Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Dom Capers was named the first head coach. The Panthers played their first regular season game in Week 1 of the 1995 season. The team fell to the Atlanta Falcons 23–20 in overtime. After a 0–5 start, with three close losses, the Panthers won their first game in franchise history, a 26–15 win over the New York Jets. The team finished its inaugural season 7–9, the best performance ever from a first-year expansion team. They performed even better in their second season, finishing with a 12–4 record and winning the NFC West division, as well as securing a first-round bye. The Panthers beat the defending Super Bowl champions Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round 26–17 before losing the NFC Championship Game to the eventual Super Bowl champions, the Green Bay Packers 30–13. The team managed only a 7–9 finish in 1997 and slipped to 4–12 in 1998, leading to Capers' dismissal as head coach.

Did You Know?

• The Panthers played their inaugural 1995 season at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina while Bank of America Stadium was under construction.
• The 2015 Panthers finished 15–1, and quarterback Cam Newton was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player.
• The Panthers have lost both of their Super Bowl appearances: Super Bowl XXXVIII after the 2003 season and Super Bowl 50 after the 2015 season.