Panthers

Charlotte sits inland from the Carolina coast, a banking city with no NFL history of its own until the league voted the Panthers into existence on October 26, 1993, its 29th franchise. Play did not begin at once: the 1995 debut season was staged at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina, while Bank of America Stadium was still being built in the city centre, opening the following year with room for 75,037.

The Panthers reached the NFC Championship twice, in 2003 and 2015, and lost both Super Bowls that followed — to the New England Patriots and then to the Denver Broncos. Between those runs came six NFC South titles, the division having replaced the single NFC West crown the club took in its second season. The New Orleans Saints have grown into the team's sharpest rivalry over that stretch.

Jerry Richardson, who brought the franchise into being, owned it until 2018, when David Tepper bought the club. Coaches have turned over often enough that Ron Rivera's near-decade in charge, from 2011 to 2019, stands out as the longest tenure; Dave Canales took the job in 2024.

No name carries more weight at the stadium than Sam Mills. A linebacker undersized for his position, he became a defensive captain and coach with the club before dying of cancer in 2005, and it was Mills who gave Carolina its rallying cry, "Keep Pounding," now struck on a drum before every home kickoff. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2022, three years before Julius Peppers followed him in.