THE GREATEST SEASON OF ALL TIME

I will forever remember the 2015 football season as the greatest season of all time. After an emotional few weeks, I have finally coped with the fact that the season ended. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a Carolina Panthers fan. I can truly say I bleed black and blue. I can say that I’ve been through the hardships with Jake Delhomme and the greatness of Steve Smith. I was also there when we drafted Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton during the first overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft who I HATED at the time as a student at the University of South Carolina. I was there when he was a rookie trying to get his groove, and was there during all of the doubt of his performance as a player. I can say that I was there when season after season we were 2-14 and that for the first time ever, I was there when we went UNDEFEATED as 14-0. This year it was all ups for my team, and it is sincerely a season that will go down in the history of football, and will forever remain in my heart.

I am so thankful to say that I attended FIVE of the GREATEST Panthers games of all time. My first game this past season was on Sunday, September 20th when we defeated the Houston Texans 24 – 17. The second game, which I would say hands down was probably an experience of a life time, was the Thanksgiving game when we conquered the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T stadium 33 – 14 (including two fabulous interceptions by our defense) on November 26th. Our defense was allll over Dez Bryant that game! Then, on December 13th we completely murdered our rival team at home, the Atlanta Falcons by shutting them out 38 – 0.

And then, I attended my first play-off game against the Seattle Seahawks on January 17th. Although I never doubted my team, I would say I was pretty much biting my fingernails off walking into the Bank of America Stadium. The Seahawks were not a team to mess with – but damn, 31 – 24 never looked so good, as they didn’t even score in the first half of the game. We left that game on cloud 9.

And finally… The NFC Championship game. I am honored that I got to witness the greatness that Carolina performed on that field during that special night against the Arizona Cardinals on January 24th. The score? a whopping 49 – 15, and I think if that game didn’t end we could have gotten to over 50 points. We were headed to the Super Bowl. Tears streamed down mine and my brother’s faces as we sang Sweet Caroline (bum bum bum) that night.

I watched some of the most iconic NFL players like Tony Romo, Russell Wilson, and JJ Watt struggle under pressure against us. I experienced watching amazing half time shows performed by Luke Bryan, B.O.B. and even got to see Little Big Town sing the National Anthem. I sat in a luxury suite at AT&T stadium with my whole family and even got to take pictures with some of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. I was at games where rappers Yung Jeezy, Future, and Nelly couldn’t resist coming to. I got to take a picture with the oldest Panthers’ fan Mary Ward, aka the “Dab Queen.” And after all of these years attending games, I finally made it to the big screen TWICE at Bank of America Stadium.

Although we didn’t end with the Lombardi Trophy, I still 100% believe that we were and are the best damn team in the National Football League. And you can bet that I cannot wait to be there for our first game on Sunday, September 11th, 2016.

So without further ado, let me walk you through my journey of the greatest season of all time: