Panthers

Cam Newton arrived in Charlotte in 2011 as the first pick in the draft, a season after the Panthers had finished 2–14, the worst record in the National Football League. In 2015 he was voted the league's Most Valuable Player as Carolina went 15–1, the best regular season in the club's history.

That team reached Super Bowl 50 and lost to the Denver Broncos, 24–10 — the same result that had met Jake Delhomme's Panthers twelve years earlier, when Carolina fell to the New England Patriots in overtime, 32–29. Both runs grew out of a defense built to punish opponents rather than just contain them; Luke Kuechly, drafted into the middle of it in 2012, was one of the best read-and-react linebackers of his era.

The Panthers, founded in 1995, wear black, Panther Blue and silver, and the physical edge of the National Football Conference South (NFC South) earned them a second name, the Black and Blue. No opponent has tested that harder than the Atlanta Falcons, close enough down Interstate 85 that the meetings are simply called the I-85 rivalry. Carolina has now won the division six times, most recently in 2025, and Panther Nation is watching to see if this squad can finally turn a division title into the Super Bowl the franchise has twice reached and never won.