Congratulations New England, but I'm sorry, Patriots fans, I was rooting for Carolina. Yeah, sure, Adam Vinatieri redeeming himself with the game-winning kick is a nice story, but the Panthers just needed this one so much more. While most franchises have glorious pasts full of almost mystical heroes (for Green Bay fans like me, it's Nitschke, Lombardi, Starr, even Favre), Carolina has only existed for a tumultuous decade that is more gory than glory and more Mystikal the rapper than mystical athletes.
The franchise has had so many problems, I almost don't know where to begin...
There was the drinking problem of quarterback Kerry Collins, who led the team to the 1996 NFC Championship game and then began to revel in being a rather big star in the rather small city of Charlotte. Too bad he didn't stop partying before the next season, and when Collins stopped hitting receivers as frequently as he hit the bottle, well, you can guess how the season went. The next year Collins called a teammate a racial slur in training camp and was released after a 0-4 start.
There's also the murder of running back Fred Lane, who was shot by his wife, Deidre, shortly after the team traded him to the Indianapolis Colts in 2000. She somehow thought murdering her husband would allow her to collect on a $5 million life-insurance policy.
And then there's star wide receiver Rae Carruth, who spent Super Bowl Sunday as he spends all other days-in prison, serving out a 19-year sentence for orchestrating the murder of his pregnant girlfriend Cherica Adams in 1999. A hit man in a car pulled up alongside Adams and shot her as she was driving, while Carruth blocked her path in another car and witnessed the murder via his rearview mirror. This isn't what coaches mean when they say they like receivers who can block well.
Not surprisingly, the Panthers continued to tank on the field year after year as well, bottoming out two years ago with an NFL-record 15 straight losses in one season, including a home game played before 50,000 empty seats.
But the team found the men to right the ship in discipline-oriented Head Coach John Fox and steady if unspectacular quarterback Jake Delhomme. But until they can finally win a championship and create a new legacy for the franchise, the past tragedies will linger.
So here's to hoping the Panthers will claw back next year. I will be rooting them on once again.
Unless they run into the Packers in the playoffs.
Michael Worringer is a junior majoring in journalism and political science. He can be reached at mtworringer@wisc.edu
