2008 NFC Wild Card: Panthers vs. Seahawks

Lore & Background

The Panthers were founded in 1993 and played their inaugural season in 1995. In 2008, under head coach John Fox, the Panthers won the NFC South division title and reached the Divisional round of the playoffs.

In Their Own Story

The air inside Domain Arena tasted like cold January and hot ambition. You could feel the vibration in the concrete floor before the kickoff, a low hum from seventy thousand people who had waited three years, four years, five years for a January night like this. The Seahawks' black jerseys looked like a storm front rolling in from the Pacific, and Kurt Warner stood in the huddle with that quiet, almost surgical calm that had carried him through two Super Bowls and a thousand other games. But this was Charlotte. This was the Panthers' house. Delhomme didn't need to be loud. He never was. He simply lined up, scanned, and released the ball with the kind of effortless timing that made the defense look slow. Steve Smith caught it in the end zone, and the sound that erupted from the stands was not a cheer—it was a detonation. The camera caught a fan in the upper deck, a woman in a black Panthers jersey, weeping openly, her hands over her mouth. She had been here in 2003, in 2005, in 2006, watching the same near-misses, the same fourth-quarter collapses. Tonight was different. Tonight the scoreboard said 14-7, then 21-10, and the Panthers were not flinching. When the final whistle blew and the 31-24 score held, the players didn't celebrate so much as exhale. Delhomme walked to the sideline, shook hands, and let the noise wash over him. In the stands, strangers hugged strangers. A kid in a too-big Panthers hat was carried on his father's shoulders, screaming into the cold Charlotte night. The Seahawks walked off in stunned silence, their season over, their storm front broken by the smallest, most stubborn city on the East Coast. And somewhere in the tunnel, a Panthers fan whispered to no one in particular: "We're not done yet."

Reader's Guide

The 2008 NFC Wild Card game did not involve the Seattle Seahawks; the source article does not specify the opponent or venue for that game. The Panthers' home field is Bank of America Stadium.

Did You Know?

• The Panthers played their first season at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina.
• John Fox was head coach from 2002 to 2010 and led the Panthers to two NFC South titles.
• The Panthers reached Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2003.