Best Panther Season? No Question

(Photo by Donald Miralle/Getty Images)

To say the 2003 Panthers' season came as a surprise is a bit of an understatement.

The team was two years removed from a 1-15 debacle. Their starting quarterback was Rodney Peete, their running back was someone with two bad knees whom the Redskins had just dumped, their young stud defensive end was coming off a drug suspension, and their big free agent acquisition was a guy who couldn't beat out Aaron Brooks or Billy Joe Toliver.

Not to mention after six straight years without a winning record, Panthers fans had come to expect the worst.

Big name acquisitions like Sean Gilbert, Chuck Wiley, Reggie White, and Doug Evans had ended in tears.

George Seifert, the coach who was supposed to turn the franchise around, instituted a three-year reign of terror.

We had watched such illustrious names play quarterback like Chad and Jeff Lewis, Chris Weinke, Randy Fasani, and Damione Craig, and now we had some guy waiting to take over with a funny accent and a bad hair cut.

That's not to say there wasn't promise for the other side of the ball, but Panther fans had learned not to fall into the trap of false hope. When the Panthers raided the retirement home for Eric Swann and Reggie White, we were led to believe they'd just found the cornerstones of a world class defense. To put it kindly, the defense they produced wasn't world class.

After a ludicrous 1999 offensive finish, the alien spaceship left Earth and took Patrick Jeffers and Steve Beurlein with it. An improbable opening day victory against the heavily favored Vikings in 2001 was followed by a terrorist attack and fifteen straight losses.

God only knew what would fell the Panthers in 2003.

I vividly remember the first home game against Jacksonvile, mostly because I missed the first half. I entered the seating bowl just as some guy named Jake Delhomme was throwing a touchdown pass to Muhsin Muhammad to bring the deficit to ten. Seven seasons of Panthers football had made me as jaded as a fifteen-year-old could be, so I and the rest of my section just rolled our eyes and waited for the inevitable collapse.

It didn't come.

I didn't even know Ricky Proehl was on the team until he caught the game winning touchdown in the final moments. Because of my crippling Panthers-related anxiety attacks, I wasn't even sure what had happened.

I knew that the next week the Panthers were going to get shellacked by the World Champion Buccaneers, but I was in heaven that moment. I let down my cool, calm exterior and allowed myself to pretend for just a second that the Panthers actually had a chance.

The shellacking against the Bucs didn't come. They even managed to hold the lead for a few moments in that game, before the completely predictable collapse. Four Hundred Year Old Brad Johnson led the Bucs on an effortless game winning drive. Having led by six moments before, all that was left to crush my dreams of a different kind of Panthers season rested on the able foot of Martin Gramatica. What follows is the conversation between my father and I:

Me: Whelp, that was good while it lasted.

Dad: Yeah, if only they hadn't fallen apart there.

Me: Oh well, wanna go to-

Dad and Me: HOLYSHITTHEYBLOCKEDTHEEXTRAPOINT

Kris Jenkins got his meaty paw on an extra point, something that could generously be described as infrequent. The Panthers took the game into overtime, Steve Smith had an inspired punt return, and John Kasay kicked what would be the first of his six game winning field goals that season.

I still refused to believe the team was for real. It wasn't until another John Kasay game winning kick took down the Colts that I realized the team had real talent. Jake Delhomme was getting the job done. Stephen Davis and Deshaun Foster were proving a legitimate running back combination. That kid who beat up Anthony Bright, Steve Smith, actually could play wide receiver.

And the defense....oh man the defense. Peppers wasn't as dominating as he'd been the season before, but Jenkins and Rucker were out of their minds. Will Witherspoon had come out of nowhere. The strong gust of wind that usually took Dan Morgan out hadn't blown yet. Dante Wesley and Reggie Howard, two guys coach John Fox shook out of a bush, were actually holding it down at the corner position.

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