False hope

Football Digest, Jan, 2004 by William Wagner

WHEN WE FEATURED KERRY Collins on the cover of our 1997 NFL preview issue, we had every reason to extol the virtues of the young quarterback and his team, the Carolina Panthers. Carolina was coming off of ah incredible 1996 season in which it went 12-4 and advanced to the NFC Championship Game in just its second year of existence. With a veteran defense and a youthfully exuberant offense, the Panthers seemed set for years to come.

Well ...

This story did not have a happy ending. In that 1997 season, the veteran defense played like was just plain old and the youthfully exuberant offense looked inexperienced. The result was a shockingly rapid fall from grave. Rather than capture the Super Bowl title--as FOOTBALL DIGEST had predicted they would do--the Panthers finished 7-9 and missed the playoffs.

Things only got worse from there. The next season onetime golden boy Collins was cut after making racially insensitive comments about a teammate, and the Panthers' record dipped again, to 4-12. In just two seasons, Carolina had gone from one of the league's brightest teams to a laughingstock.

And those laughs continued when the Panthers went 8-8 in 1999, 7-9 in 2000, and 1-15 in 2001, a season that included a 15-game losing streak.

But finally, in 2002, the Panthers did something right: They hired John Fox as their head coach. The team improved to 7-9, but more importantly, Fox put some of the pieces in place--particularly on the defensive side of the hall, which is the focus of this issue's cover story beginning on page 50--to achieve sustained success. And this season, Carolina is taking another step toward reaching that goal.

The Panthers of 1996 proved to be nothing more than one-year wonders. Now, though, they seem to be building something real.