December 15, 2023 • 41 mins
In their 9th season of existence, the Carolina Panthers had reached the doorstep of football El Dorado – the Super Bowl. The Cardiac Cats ultimately came up one heartbeat short. There would be no name engraved on the Lombardi Trophy. Instead – the Panthers etched their names in the hearts a city and its fans.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Previously uncodiac.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's over, uh and the pain finally comes to an end.
And it's been just a terrible season in the win
loss column for the Panthers. A lot of close games
throughout the course of the year, but the Panthers could
never win any of them.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Nobody's won and fifteen in the NFL. We're not that
bad and we're not going to be that bad moving forward.
Speaker 4 (00:22):
And I think they kind of understood and kind of
believe you to be honest with Yes.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Jake Tellom and a quarterback for Carolina.
Speaker 5 (00:30):
I didn't know anything, but I never heard of him.
Speaker 6 (00:34):
Nice guy.
Speaker 7 (00:35):
Here's the long back to throw.
Speaker 8 (00:36):
Looks looks fires for crawling the ends up.
Speaker 9 (00:39):
He got it.
Speaker 10 (00:40):
Got The Jaguar game changed everything because you needed a spark.
We was like something was missing.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Jake comes in and lights a fire under this offense
and that fire, uh continued for the rest of the season.
Speaker 11 (00:56):
When you look at that defensive line and you know
you had speed, powery head guys that would play the run.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Taylorson et fucker, I got on a sack going down,
had another sack this time Mike Brucker got him rams
he's going down. Give the sack that Chris Jenkins Steppers,
traps him around the ankles and sacks him at.
Speaker 7 (01:15):
The forty five yard line.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Now he's brought down from behind and sacked at the forty.
Speaker 7 (01:20):
Five yard line by Al Wallace.
Speaker 12 (01:22):
At that point, we felt like we weren't the best
defensive line, maybe the best defense in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Here Stephen Davis trying to turn the right side, cut
the back left fifteen ten sideline five to the pylon.
Speaker 7 (01:34):
Did he get it in touch down?
Speaker 10 (01:36):
Everybody knew how good a running he was.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Everybody knew they have.
Speaker 7 (01:39):
A stretches for the end zone. Touchdown.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Ranted to Sean Foster in the second round, so we
had a good one two punch at running back.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Pitch to Foster trying to turn the fire side, gets
over Hoover bounce us off the tackle, still keeps the legs.
Speaker 8 (01:52):
Turning and tives towards the endoc touch down.
Speaker 6 (01:55):
Everybody feeling the pressure. There's no doubt.
Speaker 13 (01:57):
You're trying not to say it, but you can sense
and you can feel it because two years remove, this
team is one in fifteen.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
But bitter tastes in their mouth again as they leave
Texas Stadium Final score Dallas Cowboys twenty four, Carolina Panthers twenty.
Final score for americson Stadium, Philadelphi Eagles twenty five the
Carolina Panthers sixteen.
Speaker 13 (02:16):
We just can't get that win, just to cleanse the division.
Speaker 7 (02:19):
Casey's kick is up. It is on the way.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
It is God four seconds to go, four seconds to
a division title.
Speaker 14 (02:30):
When we went into the locker room, we had NFC
South champions hats and I was thinking, Oh, how did
they make these already?
Speaker 15 (02:36):
This was something that coach Fox instituted during the season
where he would have a player speak to the team
late in the week, and.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
I never coached him up. And want to say, part
of the concept of letting somebody speak is you let
them speak from their heart.
Speaker 15 (02:51):
I remember taking a knee and seeing his silhouette in
front of me with the backdrop of the Charlotte City skyline,
and hearing this man quietly talk about the battle that
he's gone through. It is like, you just gotta keep out.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Learn fourteen from their own thirty one yard line. They're
now moving right the lapt as we start overtime quarter
number two.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
It looks like it's gonna be a short route by
the widest receiver, and then the inside guy goes up
and it looks like he's gonna go to the corner,
and so you get the guy to think that, and
then he broke to the post and you try to
make the safety look like a clown.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
It never worked in practe.
Speaker 13 (03:26):
I couldn't throw it to him because I was I
was under the anticipation that he was gonna go to
deep and he would come flat.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Practice is to improve, is not to be perfect.
Speaker 7 (03:37):
What's again coming? Delpe pumps he's got time.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Throws down Phil Smith at the forty five to the
forty I thought it's right. They ten five touchdown, touchdown
Steve Smith sixty nine yards and we are going to
the NFC Championship Game.
Speaker 16 (03:54):
Now it's getting real. I mean, you beat the Dallas
Cowboy he's pretty handily. You've beat the team that's some
most I would say that was the favorite to win
the Super Bowl. They knock them out in the next round.
So you're walking out of there knowing you've got to
go on the road play a great Philadelphia team in
the NFC title Game. That is going to be very difficult.
(04:15):
But now it's like you've won a game that nobody
thought you were going to win, So nothing seems too
big in that moment.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
And Delone takes a knee and guess what. The improbable
season for the Carolina Panthers continues. Yes, Charlotte, there is
a Super Bowl and we're in it. We're going to
Houston in two weeks to play the New England Patriots
for the championship of the National Football League.
Speaker 8 (04:47):
Fiers for prowling the ENDSI hey, got it.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Touchdown, big hole, down the sideline.
Speaker 7 (04:53):
He's gone, and the Panthers.
Speaker 8 (04:54):
Are gonna pull another one out of their heads. Us Towardsanza.
Speaker 7 (04:57):
Touchdown fires over the medal. Is that it something? Yes?
It is up.
Speaker 8 (05:01):
It is God.
Speaker 7 (05:03):
Panthers up won in it over times.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Head the forty five to the forty.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
I thought it's right, honey don but touchdown. Yes, Charlotte,
there is a Super Bowl and we're in it.
Speaker 17 (05:16):
Cardiac.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
In their ninth season of existence, the Carolina Panthers had
reached the doorstep of football El Dorado, the Super Bowl.
The game would be played in Houston, Texas, and for
rookie offensive tackle Jordan Gross, the Texas sized magnitude of
the game was palpable.
Speaker 14 (05:45):
Each game in the playoffs, the media attention grows, so
like you know, regular season game, you got your local guys.
Speaker 6 (05:51):
And maybe one national beat rider or whatever. As it
goes on.
Speaker 14 (05:54):
By timing, you get the NFC Championship game, there's a
lot more media every day at practice and all that stuff. Well,
then when you're on the Super Bowl, I mean it's
even you know, twice or four times as much as
it is for the NFC Championship game. All week a
practice there was tons of attention and a lot of
media requests independently for all of us from you know,
local radio radio, back home whatever. And then you're trying
(06:15):
to figure out the tickets and who's going to come
to the game and all of those things.
Speaker 6 (06:19):
And it was I remember it being two weeks long.
Speaker 14 (06:22):
So when we were able to take off and head
to head to Houston, it kind of felt like a
relief because all right, we got all that previous work done.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
Now you focus on the game.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
The Panthers would face the AFC champion Patriots in Super
Bowl thirty eight. New England authored a fourteen and two
regular season, the best mark in the NFL. Head coach
Bill Belichick was it his third season at the Helm,
and a twenty six year old Tom Brady was in
(06:51):
season four. Longtime Panthers broadcaster Jim Zochi, it was, you know,
earlier in their run.
Speaker 16 (06:58):
Obviously they'd won one, but it's like they were, you know,
like the perennial champions at that point. So they were good,
but they were not like over the top intimidating like
they would become.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
At that time. You know, Tom Brady had already won
a super.
Speaker 14 (07:09):
Bowl, nowhere near the aura that he has, you know
now or later in his career, So you weren't as
scared of Tom Brady, but you knew that that team
and Belichick were just quite dynamic.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
They'd won two years.
Speaker 14 (07:21):
Earlier, and we knew it was gonna be a tough matchup,
but we felt confident that we could beat those guys.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
The fear factor with that new England team came from
its defense.
Speaker 6 (07:32):
Ted Washington's the biggest dude I've ever seen in my
whole life. I mean he had to weigh four hund pounds.
I mean he was massive dude.
Speaker 14 (07:39):
And then I was going against Willie McGuinness, you know,
long bodied guy, veteran guy, and Mike Rabol and Teddy
Bruski and Roman Pfeiffer and very very.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Talented defensive end Al Wallace. Their defense was where they
hung their head. It wasn't Tom Brady, it wasn't that offense.
Speaker 12 (07:56):
We felt confident at that point that I mean, we
can go in and compete with any and if they
messed around and let us hang around, the Cardiac Cats
were gonna pop up in Houston.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Hello everybody, and welcome to Carolina Panther playoff football. We
have reached the ultimate game. This is it. It doesn't
get any bigger than this, and all the hype, all
the hooplah leads to what will take place in front
of us over the next three hours. The Carolina Panthers
are in the Super Bowl. A good friend of mine,
a coach in this league many years ago, said NFL
(08:30):
stands for not for long, and trust me, the Panthers
would agree with that, because just two years ago this
team lost fifteen in a row and they were the
worst team in the NFL. But just two years later,
after John Fox was hired as head coach and instilled
his system and his belief that this team can win.
(08:50):
Here they are in the ultimate championship game of any sport, Super.
Speaker 7 (08:55):
Bowl thirty eight.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
For all the hype and hoop loves Super Bowl, the game,
at least early on lacked helium, sluggish, slow, no offense.
Speaker 7 (09:08):
Stephen Davis with the football looking for a hole up
the middle.
Speaker 16 (09:11):
Forget it, especially from the panther's side. They could not
get anything going on the offensive side whatsoever.
Speaker 7 (09:16):
The home in the pocket, some hate sat down.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
He goes the home in the pocket, feeling some heat,
avoids one passer.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
No going down, man. We couldn't run the ball. We
couldn't pass the ball.
Speaker 14 (09:28):
I just it was tough, tough, tough sled and you know,
definitely doubt would slip in because you're just.
Speaker 6 (09:34):
Going, man, I can't get anything going here.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Davis with the football trying to find a hole up
the middle and not much running room there. Look out
the steam skip on the car side, stiff arms one
tack or but it's only able to get up to
the line of scrim that's maybe one more depends on
the spot.
Speaker 7 (09:49):
Here's the loan of the pocket. Rolls to his right,
pumps one scrambles in trouble.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Nope, hey, he avoids the sack and now he's gonna
throw it away, and he was outside the pocket and
then hammered to the turf by ty war a number
ninety four, no flag, and the Panthers again will have
to punt the football and no one's getting open.
Speaker 10 (10:08):
Frustrating those possessions the first it was absolutely frustrating. I
was thinking about, dude, we gotta go ahead and pump
this ball out. If we don't do nothing else but punt,
that's a win my football, Eyves going, oh man, just
still make any mistakes, man, and live to play another day,
and get this ball out of territory.
Speaker 7 (10:27):
Drawway. The foster bounce us off one tackle and then
he's pushed back by the New England defense and a
gain of two yards. But that's all.
Speaker 18 (10:35):
It was a chess match. We weren't able to move
the football. They weren't able to move the football. We were,
you know, we did a little bit, they did a
little bit.
Speaker 16 (10:43):
It just felt like we might get shut out right again.
To the defense. Defense wasn't given up any points here either.
Speaker 7 (10:48):
Snaff a little old placement. Vinetary's kicked us out of
the way, and it is no god thirty six yard field.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
They'll try right Hashmark by Vinitary snap price, but kick
us block. They're ball rolling into the goal down around
the goal line, and the Panthers have stopped the Patriots.
Speaker 11 (11:06):
Again, the defense is ballet I think that that was
two balanced teams. I mean, sometimes you'll see a team
that you know their defense is really good, like Baltimore
when they won their first one with Ray Lewis, like
their defense was the shutout. Offense was okay, you just
don't turn it over. And then you'll see some other
offenses where they're just lighting the board up. But maybe
the defense you know, it's a shootout. I feel like
(11:26):
you saw two teams that were well balanced.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Super Bowl thirty eight remained scoreless for almost twenty seven
minutes until the Panthers blinked.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Third eleven Carolina from their twenty five, moving left to right,
no score.
Speaker 7 (11:45):
Below in the pocket wat Child, Oh he's hid, has.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Had a fumble, loose ball at the twenty and they're
gonna say New England's got it.
Speaker 14 (11:55):
It's funny when those plays happened, because in the NFC
Championship game, when the defense has something like that happened, well,
the whole stadium erupts and you know.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
There's music and all that stuff. Won a Super Bowl.
Speaker 14 (12:05):
It's like a neutral crowd, right, So it wasn't as
giant as a reaction from the bands as it would
have been if it was a home and away game
anything like that.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
But just oh crap, that's not good.
Speaker 14 (12:17):
Fortunately, our defense had been playing so well all year
that I didn't think that it was just all for
not you know, the game was over.
Speaker 6 (12:23):
But definitely knew that we would.
Speaker 14 (12:25):
We had been the first ones to kind of flinch
and give them a favorable situation.
Speaker 10 (12:30):
Those are the plays that turn games around. Those are
the plays that when you go to sideline, okay, all right,
there's always have to be a galvanizing moment. That play
was a galvanizing moment for the Patriots because now they're
like this, okay, all right, now we're ready. They're about
to fill this thing of us that we're ready. And
that changes leeks enough deficially on the sideline. Look at
(12:52):
this sideline and look at our sideline. It's gonna be
totally two different things. Our defensive the time.
Speaker 19 (12:56):
All all right, let's get ready going, Look we're gonna
go up to let's get over go do that, right,
And the sidelight like, Okay, we got him, baby, That's
what we've been waiting for is about to break.
Speaker 7 (13:06):
Here's the Dyke's about to break.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
And that's first sting goal to England, moving right the
left of the Carolina five yard line, split the lone
running back because Tom Brady barks out his call play
action fake throws over the middle, wide open touchdown stee
On franch right in the middle of the end zone
of the Patriots.
Speaker 7 (13:27):
All right, the lord first.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
While New England took the early seven to nothing lead,
there was no panic for Jake the Loan and the Panthers.
Speaker 13 (13:36):
Dan Henning was so prophetic leading up to that game.
I mean, he basically played out to us and needing
exactly how.
Speaker 6 (13:42):
The game was gonna play out.
Speaker 13 (13:44):
Men, I'm just telling you the first quarter, it's gonna
be tough sled. They were so big and so good
on defense. He said, it's gonna be like trying to
run into a brick wall. We're just gonna have to
stick with it, just keep it close, stick with it.
Second quarter and Dan's words, he goes, those big fat
boys are gonna get tired. He said, we're gonna start
to get something and we'll get some points.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Two receivers to the right, split backs behind the lall
he's under center. Jeff Fitchell kicks the snap, then the pocket.
He goes downfield. He throws it up for Steve Smith
and he's got a touchdown. Caroline up, Steve Smith met.
Speaker 7 (14:21):
Tyron cool down the far side line. Perfect probe. I
check the loan and the Panthers are on the board.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Steve Smith's game time touchdown came less than two minutes
after New England opened the scoring. Both offenses had woken
up second and.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Ten Patriots in their thirty fourth Brady will again work
shot gun. Here comes, He'll blitz up the middle. Brady rolls, stops, fires,
kick down. Peel got a man there, caught at the twenty.
He'd down with a fifteen yard line. It's Dean Britch.
Brady play actually throws over the middle, touchdown.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
The Pats led fourteen to seven with less than twenty
seconds to go in the first half, but the Panthers
had one more roar before halftime.
Speaker 7 (15:07):
First out and it's ironic play off the middle.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Foster Beck Hall Ernest Davis till the thirty five to
the thirty one call.
Speaker 8 (15:14):
Time out they do.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Bluba left tash bark fifty yard field, a'll try snap,
hic you Casey's.
Speaker 7 (15:19):
Kicking us up. Its go John Casey.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
At the end of the half and the Panthers are
more then four.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
The two teams combined for twenty four points in the
last three minutes and five seconds of the first half.
Carolina trailed fourteen to ten at the break. As the
players cleared the field, Jessica Simpson kickstarted the halftime festivities,
(15:54):
but Simpson had little to do with the next day's
halftime headline.
Speaker 20 (16:01):
Janet super Bowl halftime performance made news around the world.
The FCC received more than five hundred thousand complaints about
that broadcast. CBS was fined five hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
and then the NFL was asked to refund the ten
million dollars that they had been given to the halftime
show sponsor.
Speaker 14 (16:20):
That is the landmark that I used though to tell
people what Super Bowl I was in.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
They'd say, yeah, what super were you in? I was like, ah,
the one.
Speaker 14 (16:28):
With Janet Jackson, you know, Oh yeah, okay, yep, that's right,
I know, the one.
Speaker 20 (16:34):
The first ral ashes was it planned?
Speaker 8 (16:36):
Janet?
Speaker 9 (16:37):
No well, what people don't understand is he was to
take and rip the piece off that he did a
letter piece, right, but more came off than what was
supposed to.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Start with the phrase wardrobe malfunction in the pop culture
Waiting the Room, Jordan Gross witnessed another disturbance right before
the third quarter kickoff.
Speaker 14 (17:00):
The guy game on there and addressed like an official
and then ripped his clothes off down to his like
a little speedo and had an advertisement for Goldenpalace dot com,
which is like an online betting game, one of.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
The first ones. So there was a little bit of everything. Man,
it was a wild time.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
The third quarter mirrored the first. Neither team scored, but
with less than a minute to go in the quarter,
the Patriots looked poised to extend their lead.
Speaker 7 (17:27):
All right, Patriots back at the line.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
It's the Carolina forty two second down, twelve yards to
go for a New England first down of the final
minute of the third quarter, Super Bowl thirty eight. Play
action fake Brady throws right down the middle of the field,
cut at the twenty.
Speaker 7 (17:40):
That's the tight end of the ten caught at the
eight yard line, person goal.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
New England safety Mike Minter made the tackle on that play,
but paid an enormous price.
Speaker 21 (17:52):
When I heating at about the five yard line, my
foot slipped in a grass slippery turf field that Houston
had and it broke at that time, and I remember
coming to the sideliness and then I broke.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
My foot and everything like what broke your foot?
Speaker 21 (18:09):
And they were about taking my shoe offs, and now
I don't take it off, just tape it up.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
I'm I'm gonna finish this game. I'm not coming back
to see the Bowl.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Mentor would play the rest of the series and the
rest of the game.
Speaker 21 (18:21):
When the plays were going on, I didn't fill the
broken foot when a play was over. That's when I
felt curious, like some excruciating pain that went through your
body after every freaking snap.
Speaker 19 (18:34):
Man.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
So it's a mind over mounted.
Speaker 21 (18:36):
So when people say that your mind can go to places,
your body will follow.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
When the fourth quarter started, the Patriots led fourteen to
ten and had the ball on the Panthers two yard line,
first and.
Speaker 7 (18:52):
Golf from the tube.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Rady was gonna hand off Smith right side too one touchdown.
New England had watch Smith and they bob him in
the corner of the end zone.
Speaker 7 (19:02):
And that was real easy.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Antoine Smith's touchdown gave the Pats a twenty one to
ten lead. But Mike Rucker and the Cardiac Cats had
lived this movie before.
Speaker 11 (19:14):
I'm telling you the honest truth. There was no panic.
There was no panic until the clock kiss double zero.
We had been through all these situations already, and so
we felt very comfortable, feelt totally confident that you put.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Us out there and we can get the job done.
There was still almost an entire quarter to play. Carolina's
offense had now worn down New England's defense, and the
fourth quarter is where the Panthers excelled. Quarterback Jake Delone.
We kind of loosened up.
Speaker 13 (19:44):
We started doing two minute throwing the ball all over
the place, and I think confidence.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
We were a confident football team.
Speaker 13 (19:50):
And once that started, you know, from Moose to Ricky
the Steve, you know, it was the same cast of
characters like this is no big deal, this is what
we this is who we are, this is.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
What we do. Head coach John Foxx, well, we just.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
Opened it up.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I mean, Dan Annings did a great job. He went
now huddle. I mean, so we that opened the game up.
But It was a great move by our coaching staff,
and you know, it definitely changed the game.
Speaker 6 (20:17):
It was like, Okay, here we go.
Speaker 14 (20:18):
We're gonna win this thing because I could feel it
build and I could had earlier in the season at
multiple time.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Here's the loan back to throw with time brushed out
of the pocket to the left, still looking to throw now,
heaves it upfield for Smith, who's got it and stayed
in bounds at the forty five yard line.
Speaker 7 (20:35):
I don't know how we caught that ball.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
The loan will work under center this time second and
ten from his own forty five in the pocket Downfielder goes.
Speaker 7 (20:44):
Up for Smith.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
He's got it at the New England thirty five yard line.
Tackle at the thirty two, and it's another first down
along again. We'll work out of the shot going second
and ten Carolina in the thirty three.
Speaker 7 (20:54):
He's got the ball.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Drop player Sean Foster running left at the thirty breaks tackle.
Speaker 7 (20:58):
Quick's another one the.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Twenty side like ten five Fosters dimes on the anisode
touchdown Panthers quitting a chronicle run by the shun Fosters
pro fatacule at the.
Speaker 7 (21:11):
Line, turned it outside left thirty three yards.
Speaker 13 (21:15):
He's absolutely electric quick thirty one trap was to play
just to see him kind of bounce and he takes
off and I'm like, man, he's gonna score, and all
of a sudden he dies, and I think that's one
of the coolest posas I've ever seen on the run
when he just dies and he hangs the ball out
in the air with that with that arm.
Speaker 10 (21:31):
This dude just got a thirty three yard run.
Speaker 7 (21:33):
A testo.
Speaker 10 (21:34):
Dude, he just let everybody know that. I know, y'all,
everybody's talking about Stephen Davis.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
He's a guy.
Speaker 10 (21:40):
But guess who I am.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Down twenty one sixteen, the Panthers decided to try for
a two points conversion.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Panthers break the huddle flo under center. It's twenty one
sixteen that here's the all back to.
Speaker 7 (22:00):
Throw plenty of time.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Throws over the middle also and Muhammad was open in
the back of the end zone, right over the p
and Patriots and then they missed it.
Speaker 7 (22:10):
For PU How about that throw is late though, and
Mohammed was open.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
We had two point plays there. We just we just
missed them. And like anything, you know, it's a great
call until it's not.
Speaker 16 (22:20):
It's only good when it works, and so the risk
reward is when it doesn't work out. Now you're chasing
those points. I think you know, they felt like it's
the super Bowl, let's go for it.
Speaker 13 (22:28):
Gosh, Chasing points are difficult. Sometimes it's so easy to say,
now you kind of wish, uh, you just take the points,
take the points and see what happens in the end.
But you know, I guess at that point the chart,
you're playing the book. Whatever the chart said.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
The Patriots still led by five and had another chance
to go up two scores.
Speaker 7 (22:47):
So now it is third in Gold, New England.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
From a nine yard line, falk Is the running back,
Brown and motion far side left.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
And the pocket to throw.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Teams it up towards the end zone, intercept it Reggie
Howard coming up field of the five.
Speaker 7 (23:06):
There's a ten yard line. They finally got frusher on
Brady and.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
He forced it and there was Reggie Howard to pick it.
Speaker 13 (23:14):
Off, shocking Tom through a red zone interception. It was
a bad play by him with you we don't see
and undrafted out of Memphis. Reggie Howard former practice squad
teammate of mind with the Saints. So Reggie gets the pick,
and here we are and get another chance.
Speaker 10 (23:29):
They should go ahead and score, and they don't. They
don't score, and then we get the ball. This is
where the game changes.
Speaker 11 (23:36):
It's just something special about an interception because like you
are actually taking the ball away. That's fun to get
the sack, right, But when you're taking the ball away,
there's very few feelings like that because we know that
when this big game and that we're giving an offensive
chance to put points on the board. Big interception, that
was huge, That was huge. Four plays later, the Panther
(24:00):
stared at a third and ten from their own fifteen
yard line.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
So a huge play hair for the Carolina offense. And
that's this type of play.
Speaker 7 (24:10):
In the fourth quorder with their.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Team down, Jack Gonome has been making all year long.
Foster is coming as the running bat. Muhammad and crawler
out white near side left, Steve Smith wide right. Here's
the third and ten goal play. Action belong back to throw.
Nobody opened now sets out.
Speaker 7 (24:28):
Of the downfield. Muhammad, he's got it at the thirty.
He's in the twenty. It's defensil. Tucker touts down touchdown.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Carolina hold God goodness.
Speaker 16 (24:42):
In the eighty five yards well, so easy it is.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Mussin Mohammad's eighty five yard touchdown catch is still the
longest touchdown reception in Super Bowl history. It gave the
Panthers their first lead of the game. Carolina was seven
minutes and six seconds from a Super Bowl win.
Speaker 16 (25:07):
You're feeling really confident at this point. The way you're
putting points upon the boards. You're feeling like New England's
lost it and the Panthers have figured it out. Whatever
it is they were doing in the first half, it's gone.
The Panthers are exploding them in the passing game. Carolina
is back in this and not only back in it.
They're gonna win this bag thing.
Speaker 10 (25:23):
I'm thinking we're gonna win. We are gonna win a
super Bowl. We were too good offensively and defensively. Were
playing in these tough games all year low it's going
to swing out with because guess what, we've been in
the trenches and we've been there.
Speaker 6 (25:38):
I thought we would win. I really did. Our defense
was very, very good.
Speaker 14 (25:42):
Offensively, you know, we kind of felt like we were
starting to get our groove. We had good special teams.
I was feeling pretty comfortable with where we were at
and as the season had gone on and so many
overtime wins, I just didn't think that there was any
way we were gonna let this one get away from us.
Speaker 22 (25:57):
I mean, we're Cardiact cast We're gonna win this game.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
With the Panthers ahead twenty two to twenty one, John
Fox once again tried a two point conversion.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Goings in the backfield, goes in motion, right, here's the
loan back to throw short drop looks quotes it up for.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Dyson mistem When New England got the ball back, they
turned to Tom Brady.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Second and seventh Patriots in the Carolina forty seven.
Speaker 7 (26:26):
Brady has the snap from.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
The shot gun, rolls to the near side right, he'll
float out fail that it's caught breaking a tackle and
then out of bounds. David Gibbons and New England has
the ball of the Carolina twenty.
Speaker 8 (26:38):
Three yard line.
Speaker 16 (26:39):
And talk about Jake Delumbing clutched. Tom Brady invented that.
I mean, it's just like, if he's known for anything,
it's being a clutch performer, not only being one of
the greatest of all times, but also part of that
being winning games in the clutch fourth quarter overtime situations
like that. He built that reputation in seasons and in
games like that one against the Panthers.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Down Randy out of the shotgun, rolling near side, right,
steps up and.
Speaker 7 (27:04):
Throws, playing a cat and the five yard line and
stumming out of bounds at the three.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Here they come ball just outside the one second in goal.
Brady play action back to throw the metal touchdown.
Speaker 8 (27:17):
Patriots.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
New England tacked down a two point conversion to take
a twenty nine to twenty two lead with less than
three minutes to go for the Cardiac Cats. This was
a familiar feeling. Quarterback Jake Delane.
Speaker 13 (27:38):
We were very comfortable in the two minute situation. We
knew we were going down to score. I mean that
was I know I keep saying that, but that's what
the mentality of that team was. Yeah, we're going down,
We're going to score.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
No huddle, shotgun, second and one running play, Foster looking
for a hole. He's got it to the thirty five
to the thirty six in a first down the home
out of the shotgun, no huddle, back to throw, doubt,
Kield goes He's got Muhammad open at the peg. Drift
forty five and out of bounds along the.
Speaker 7 (28:04):
Near sideline first and tenth Carolina.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Delomb under center Fosters is running back play action along
the pass rip time downfield.
Speaker 7 (28:14):
He's got crawled at the twenty.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Tricky crawled at the fifteen to the fourteen yard line.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Down by seven, the Panthers had to the ball at
the Patriots twelve yard line.
Speaker 6 (28:27):
Seventy two.
Speaker 13 (28:27):
Reno is the exact same play that we scored to
be Jacksonville on first game of the season.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
The win against the Jaguars in Week one put the
Panthers on a five month cardiac quest. That was the
game in which Jake Delom came off the bench and
conjured the first of many comebacks.
Speaker 8 (28:49):
Fires for prowling the ends on, hey got.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
It that dam Now. With the Panthers down seven in
the waning moments of the Super Bowl, Delom dialed up
Ricky Proll once more stafters.
Speaker 7 (29:03):
Go without a huddle shotgun formation.
Speaker 13 (29:06):
That was the beauty of what we did to minute
offense is that we could run all the same plays
over and over again, but you just wherever you ended
up on the previous play, you just stayed in that position.
So in essence, everybody had to know all four positions.
And that's what was so good about our guys.
Speaker 7 (29:22):
The LOLM is ruddy, He's got the ball and back
the throw.
Speaker 13 (29:24):
You could tell they were coming with all out pressure,
and I felt very comfortable making that throw to Ricky.
Ricky wasn't going to cut it short. He was going
to do the Ricky prol two step, as he used
to like to call it.
Speaker 7 (29:34):
Look spots it in the end zone.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Wide open Touchdoc Carolina, Rickey Prole, unbelievable, Yes.
Speaker 7 (29:44):
And he was wide open. Kyle Snapp, here's the place
with Casey's kicked. He's got it. We're all tied.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
We're tied in the thirty eighth Super Bowl, twenty nine
a piece for the minute eight to go in the
fourth quarter. And the Panthers have never given up all
season long. They've never given up, and here they're down
twenty one to ten in the fourth quarter and suddenly we're.
Speaker 7 (30:06):
All tied again.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Carolina had been involved in seven games decided by three
points or less. The Panthers had won them all. Many
of those wins came on the leg of John Casey.
Speaker 21 (30:23):
Without John Casey, were not even talking about the two
thousand and three Carolina Pimphs and Casey.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Will kick off right the left.
Speaker 7 (30:33):
Here's the boot. Oh no, it was out of bound.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Oh my goodness, John Casey can't believe what he just did.
Speaker 11 (30:43):
The ball was illegally kicked off on a bounds There
will be placed at the forty yard line.
Speaker 7 (30:48):
Out swinger's ball first down out, like putting her t
shot in the woods on the eighteenth tea box.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Panthers team historian David.
Speaker 17 (30:56):
Brow John got an unfairshake. Everybody wants to talk about
the kickoff went out of bounds. We could sit here
and I can call up ten plays from the game
that if they had gone a different way. It doesn't
come down to that kick.
Speaker 13 (31:08):
You just heard a gasp from the crowd. But honestly,
my mind went to, Okay, our defense is gonna stop him.
Speaker 6 (31:16):
And when they go to kick a field goal, we're
going to blocking.
Speaker 13 (31:18):
I mean, that's really and truly. I don't know if
that's just being so naive, but that's kind of what
the thought process was following his team.
Speaker 6 (31:26):
They still had to score.
Speaker 14 (31:27):
It's not like you kick a ball out of bounds
and the other team automatically gets points.
Speaker 6 (31:31):
You know there's a whole follow up series that has
to happen. So now no panic there, just Tom Brady.
You know, we now know how great.
Speaker 14 (31:38):
He is in those situations. He just went down the
field and kicked our butt.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
The Patriots started the drive at their own forty yard
line with all three timeouts. Two plays later, New England
crossed midfield, but then the Panthers got a break.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Two timeouts left four, Newing and Brady back to throw
floats it down field. Perhp's got it flag on the
play man, who's it gonna be on? Yes, and that's
the call offensive pass.
Speaker 7 (32:11):
Interferrence good call, and Cherry called at first.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
The penalty backed up the Patriots to their own forty
three with less than a minute to go.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Brady'll work out of the shotgun. This time, here comes
the blitz. Brady's gonna go near sideline to Brown at
the forty five to the fifty.
Speaker 7 (32:29):
Come on, you gotta push.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Him back, and they do, but he gets to the
forty seven yard line.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Is he Pete?
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Ricky manning that time branch out to the right, two
receivers left. Brady will works shotgun from his own forty
three first and twenty and Brady's gonna roll to the
fire side, look fire down field. That's caught great catching
traffic at the Carolina forty five. There were a few
situations on that drive where the Panthers could have gotten
off the field.
Speaker 6 (32:53):
You know, maybe if they brought.
Speaker 8 (32:54):
More pressure they would have affected Brady.
Speaker 23 (32:57):
Well, I mean, I don't we right, it's a situation
where and you know, do you go out to Brady
and then give an opportunity for this guy to have
a one on one situation with somebody you know, or
do you go to your you know what people will
call Tampa two.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
It's a defense that you know, we made it to
the Super Bowl.
Speaker 12 (33:18):
On you trust Mike Turgervak. You trust the guys to
make the calls. They had gotten us there all year.
So we don't second guess whether or not we should
have been pressuring Tom Brady. We had a responsibility to
try to get to Tom Brady. And although we got
to him and we hit him and you knock him
on the ground, we knew he didn't like that.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
But of course.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
If you're playing zone late in the game, the guys
who he is for a reason.
Speaker 12 (33:39):
That's seventeen of those things for a reason, and you
found a way to pick us apart and find some
some saft spots.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
In the zone.
Speaker 7 (33:45):
Brady, I'm a shotgun. He's got the ball.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Pressure throws their sideline caught, make catch up.
Speaker 7 (33:53):
For twenty four. Kean prants again and now angle well.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Eight seconds left the call of timeand.
Speaker 8 (34:01):
That's their third final five out.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Dion Branch's reception gave New England to the ball at
the Carolina twenty three yard line. Mike Mintor, playing with
a broken foot, nearly broke up the pass.
Speaker 21 (34:16):
Yeah, with a healthy foot, I'm breaking on that ball
quicker and definitely either picking that ball off that it
felt like it was floating to me and or knocking
it down. So yeah, I do. I think I think
about it every day, man. To be honest with you,
(34:38):
it's a it's a thing where I'm saying, man, I
think if I got a healthy foot, man, I might
be in the history books a different way, dude.
Speaker 10 (34:48):
Mike never told me it was playing with a broken foot.
You shouldn't even be in the picture with a broken foot,
he read to play perfectly.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
The page triots were set up with nine seconds left
and the game tied. Adam Vin Terry had a forty
one yard field gold truck, but he had already missed
one kick and the Panthers had blocked another.
Speaker 7 (35:17):
Oh can we block another one?
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Snap hip us on the way by Venitary, dead solid
perfect four seconds left and New England has the late
thirty two to twenty nine.
Speaker 7 (35:35):
He hit it.
Speaker 13 (35:36):
I'm telling you you're gonna think I'm insane. I looked
at Steve and I went to him, was like, Hey,
this is it.
Speaker 6 (35:43):
You're running it back.
Speaker 13 (35:44):
There's no question, like, this is our We're winning.
Speaker 6 (35:47):
Some of them were like, we're winning. Yeah, Steve's gonna
run it back.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Venitary ready to kick off from his thirty from left
or right before.
Speaker 7 (35:58):
Flock doesn't start.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Kill the ball cup alright, team end over end Rod
Smart's coming out.
Speaker 7 (36:06):
Here's the last play. Ten Smart to the.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Sideline, twenty crop at the twenty and it's over now.
Speaker 7 (36:13):
The New England Patriots have won the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
What a valiant effort by the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 7 (36:21):
They did everything but win this game fairly twenty one
to ten.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
In the fourth quarter, they actually had the lead twenty
to twenty one, but it was just.
Speaker 7 (36:39):
Too much for them to stop. Tom Brady in company
on their final drive, but.
Speaker 24 (36:46):
An absolutely what a valiant effort by this tenth of
buck Look, i'll tell you what the office I thought,
you responded, defense got a little bit lex but they
did a great job of bussa back and fighting all.
Speaker 7 (36:57):
Through this game. It was a tremendous season.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
And believe me, back in July, who was thinking that
the Panthers would get to the Super Bowl. But they
got here with a blue collar team, guys who left
their egos at the door and were the epitome of
what a team is in this league. No superstars, fifty
three guys who hung together all season long, and they
(37:22):
lose by three in the biggest game.
Speaker 7 (37:25):
Of the year.
Speaker 14 (37:26):
NFL Films has a pretty good shot of me kind
of walking off the field looking dejected as the confetti's
flying behind me, you know, from them and just I
mean it's not the most eloquent, but just this sucks.
Speaker 6 (37:40):
You know, we just lost the Super Bowl. You know, like,
that's not how this was supposed to go.
Speaker 14 (37:47):
And also, you know, shortly thereafter there's some relief as
you kind of come down from all of that, You're.
Speaker 7 (37:53):
Like, wow, that was a lot.
Speaker 6 (37:55):
That was a lot of season. That was a lot
of game, That was a lot of emotion.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
Well, I remember walking out of the stadium with my
oldest son, Natt, and he was crying, and I.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
Said, Sonny, what's wrong? He goes, I wanted this one
for Sam.
Speaker 21 (38:10):
Every single time NFL game come home, or if I
see the Patriots, or if I see Tom Brady or
if I see Belichick. You know, and you gotta imagine
me now coaching, I'm always getting asked about the game,
So I'm thinking about the game pretty much almost every day.
Speaker 11 (38:32):
To me, we were going to be back in the
super Bowl next year, in the year after that and
the year after that.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
So you know, from that standpoint, it was lost on me,
but you know was great.
Speaker 6 (38:42):
I really thought that we'd get a chance to be
back there. We just had a good young team and
we never got it done.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
In Roger Cohn's classic The Boys of Summer, the story
of the nineteen fifties Brooklyn Dodgers, there's a memorable in
the beginning. You may glory in a team triumphant, but
you fall in love with the team in defeat. The
Cardiac Cats ultimately came up one heart beat short. There
(39:15):
would be no name engraved on the Lombardi Trophy. Instead,
Panthers etched their names in the hearts of a city
and its fans.
Speaker 6 (39:26):
Big moment Charlotte and Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
A lot of people in Charlotte the Panthers.
Speaker 6 (39:31):
Were their second favorite team.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Well, I think after that, I think, you know, people
in Charlotte Panthers started becoming their first favorite team.
Speaker 18 (39:38):
It was the Cardiac Cats. It was a nail binder,
white knucklin. You could not leave the room because so
many different things can happen.
Speaker 14 (39:48):
It's amazing how well we'll remember the Cardiac Cats, the
personality of that team.
Speaker 6 (39:53):
Something I'm forever grateful to be a part of.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
The legacy is Keith Pounding.
Speaker 12 (39:56):
It was coined before that playoff game against the Dallas
ca We played that way all year before Sam Mills
gave They gave us that. But it is about a
team that was built and put together on a bunch
of second, third, last chance guys.
Speaker 11 (40:12):
We were the first to be able to bring that
type of joy to the Carolinas.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
And still it.
Speaker 11 (40:19):
Gives me goosebumps when people come up and you know
they were like, Hey, I was ten years old and
you know, blah blah blah. You know.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
To me, that's what the sport's about.
Speaker 11 (40:27):
For me to tell my stories and for them to
also tell me their stories, because I want to know
what they were doing, how did they see that, how'd
they see that play?
Speaker 1 (40:35):
How they see that win?
Speaker 11 (40:37):
And I think that that's the joy that I get
now in the phase of my life.
Speaker 22 (40:41):
The standard, the standard in every way, the standard in
terms of chemistry, the standard in terms of fun, the
standard in terms of what it means to win, what
it means to battle, never lose, keep pounding.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
In the face of adversity and improbable odds. The Cardiac
cats taught us to keep believing, to keep pushing, to
keep trying, and of course to.
Speaker 8 (41:07):
Keep heep fires for prolling the NSA.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
He God touchdown, big hole, down the sideline.
Speaker 7 (41:19):
He's gone, and.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
The Panthers are gonna pull another one out of their head.
Nice Tortianza touchdown, fires over the medal?
Speaker 7 (41:25):
Is that intercepted?
Speaker 8 (41:26):
Yes, it is up, it is gone.
Speaker 7 (41:29):
Panthers have won in it over times man head the
forty five to the forny. I thought it's right? Is
the honey ten fine touchdown? Yes, Charlotte. There is a
super Bowl and we're in it.
Speaker 17 (41:43):
Cardiac
Previously uncodiac.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's over, uh and the pain finally comes to an end.
And it's been just a terrible season in the win
loss column for the Panthers. A lot of close games
throughout the course of the year, but the Panthers could
never win any of them.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Nobody's won and fifteen in the NFL. We're not that
bad and we're not going to be that bad moving forward.
Speaker 4 (00:22):
And I think they kind of understood and kind of
believe you to be honest with Yes.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Jake Tellom and a quarterback for Carolina.
Speaker 5 (00:30):
I didn't know anything, but I never heard of him.
Speaker 6 (00:34):
Nice guy.
Speaker 7 (00:35):
Here's the long back to throw.
Speaker 8 (00:36):
Looks looks fires for crawling the ends up.
Speaker 9 (00:39):
He got it.
Speaker 10 (00:40):
Got The Jaguar game changed everything because you needed a spark.
We was like something was missing.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Jake comes in and lights a fire under this offense
and that fire, uh continued for the rest of the season.
Speaker 11 (00:56):
When you look at that defensive line and you know
you had speed, powery head guys that would play the run.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Taylorson et fucker, I got on a sack going down,
had another sack this time Mike Brucker got him rams
he's going down. Give the sack that Chris Jenkins Steppers,
traps him around the ankles and sacks him at.
Speaker 7 (01:15):
The forty five yard line.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Now he's brought down from behind and sacked at the forty.
Speaker 7 (01:20):
Five yard line by Al Wallace.
Speaker 12 (01:22):
At that point, we felt like we weren't the best
defensive line, maybe the best defense in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Here Stephen Davis trying to turn the right side, cut
the back left fifteen ten sideline five to the pylon.
Speaker 7 (01:34):
Did he get it in touch down?
Speaker 10 (01:36):
Everybody knew how good a running he was.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Everybody knew they have.
Speaker 7 (01:39):
A stretches for the end zone. Touchdown.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Ranted to Sean Foster in the second round, so we
had a good one two punch at running back.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Pitch to Foster trying to turn the fire side, gets
over Hoover bounce us off the tackle, still keeps the legs.
Speaker 8 (01:52):
Turning and tives towards the endoc touch down.
Speaker 6 (01:55):
Everybody feeling the pressure. There's no doubt.
Speaker 13 (01:57):
You're trying not to say it, but you can sense
and you can feel it because two years remove, this
team is one in fifteen.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
But bitter tastes in their mouth again as they leave
Texas Stadium Final score Dallas Cowboys twenty four, Carolina Panthers twenty.
Final score for americson Stadium, Philadelphi Eagles twenty five the
Carolina Panthers sixteen.
Speaker 13 (02:16):
We just can't get that win, just to cleanse the division.
Speaker 7 (02:19):
Casey's kick is up. It is on the way.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
It is God four seconds to go, four seconds to
a division title.
Speaker 14 (02:30):
When we went into the locker room, we had NFC
South champions hats and I was thinking, Oh, how did
they make these already?
Speaker 15 (02:36):
This was something that coach Fox instituted during the season
where he would have a player speak to the team
late in the week, and.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
I never coached him up. And want to say, part
of the concept of letting somebody speak is you let
them speak from their heart.
Speaker 15 (02:51):
I remember taking a knee and seeing his silhouette in
front of me with the backdrop of the Charlotte City skyline,
and hearing this man quietly talk about the battle that
he's gone through. It is like, you just gotta keep out.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Learn fourteen from their own thirty one yard line. They're
now moving right the lapt as we start overtime quarter
number two.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
It looks like it's gonna be a short route by
the widest receiver, and then the inside guy goes up
and it looks like he's gonna go to the corner,
and so you get the guy to think that, and
then he broke to the post and you try to
make the safety look like a clown.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
It never worked in practe.
Speaker 13 (03:26):
I couldn't throw it to him because I was I
was under the anticipation that he was gonna go to
deep and he would come flat.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Practice is to improve, is not to be perfect.
Speaker 7 (03:37):
What's again coming? Delpe pumps he's got time.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Throws down Phil Smith at the forty five to the
forty I thought it's right. They ten five touchdown, touchdown
Steve Smith sixty nine yards and we are going to
the NFC Championship Game.
Speaker 16 (03:54):
Now it's getting real. I mean, you beat the Dallas
Cowboy he's pretty handily. You've beat the team that's some
most I would say that was the favorite to win
the Super Bowl. They knock them out in the next round.
So you're walking out of there knowing you've got to
go on the road play a great Philadelphia team in
the NFC title Game. That is going to be very difficult.
(04:15):
But now it's like you've won a game that nobody
thought you were going to win, So nothing seems too
big in that moment.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
And Delone takes a knee and guess what. The improbable
season for the Carolina Panthers continues. Yes, Charlotte, there is
a Super Bowl and we're in it. We're going to
Houston in two weeks to play the New England Patriots
for the championship of the National Football League.
Speaker 8 (04:47):
Fiers for prowling the ENDSI hey, got it.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Touchdown, big hole, down the sideline.
Speaker 7 (04:53):
He's gone, and the Panthers.
Speaker 8 (04:54):
Are gonna pull another one out of their heads. Us Towardsanza.
Speaker 7 (04:57):
Touchdown fires over the medal. Is that it something? Yes?
It is up.
Speaker 8 (05:01):
It is God.
Speaker 7 (05:03):
Panthers up won in it over times.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Head the forty five to the forty.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
I thought it's right, honey don but touchdown. Yes, Charlotte,
there is a Super Bowl and we're in it.
Speaker 17 (05:16):
Cardiac.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
In their ninth season of existence, the Carolina Panthers had
reached the doorstep of football El Dorado, the Super Bowl.
The game would be played in Houston, Texas, and for
rookie offensive tackle Jordan Gross, the Texas sized magnitude of
the game was palpable.
Speaker 14 (05:45):
Each game in the playoffs, the media attention grows, so
like you know, regular season game, you got your local guys.
Speaker 6 (05:51):
And maybe one national beat rider or whatever. As it
goes on.
Speaker 14 (05:54):
By timing, you get the NFC Championship game, there's a
lot more media every day at practice and all that stuff. Well,
then when you're on the Super Bowl, I mean it's
even you know, twice or four times as much as
it is for the NFC Championship game. All week a
practice there was tons of attention and a lot of
media requests independently for all of us from you know,
local radio radio, back home whatever. And then you're trying
(06:15):
to figure out the tickets and who's going to come
to the game and all of those things.
Speaker 6 (06:19):
And it was I remember it being two weeks long.
Speaker 14 (06:22):
So when we were able to take off and head
to head to Houston, it kind of felt like a
relief because all right, we got all that previous work done.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
Now you focus on the game.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
The Panthers would face the AFC champion Patriots in Super
Bowl thirty eight. New England authored a fourteen and two
regular season, the best mark in the NFL. Head coach
Bill Belichick was it his third season at the Helm,
and a twenty six year old Tom Brady was in
(06:51):
season four. Longtime Panthers broadcaster Jim Zochi, it was, you know,
earlier in their run.
Speaker 16 (06:58):
Obviously they'd won one, but it's like they were, you know,
like the perennial champions at that point. So they were good,
but they were not like over the top intimidating like
they would become.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
At that time. You know, Tom Brady had already won
a super.
Speaker 14 (07:09):
Bowl, nowhere near the aura that he has, you know
now or later in his career, So you weren't as
scared of Tom Brady, but you knew that that team
and Belichick were just quite dynamic.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
They'd won two years.
Speaker 14 (07:21):
Earlier, and we knew it was gonna be a tough matchup,
but we felt confident that we could beat those guys.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
The fear factor with that new England team came from
its defense.
Speaker 6 (07:32):
Ted Washington's the biggest dude I've ever seen in my
whole life. I mean he had to weigh four hund pounds.
I mean he was massive dude.
Speaker 14 (07:39):
And then I was going against Willie McGuinness, you know,
long bodied guy, veteran guy, and Mike Rabol and Teddy
Bruski and Roman Pfeiffer and very very.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Talented defensive end Al Wallace. Their defense was where they
hung their head. It wasn't Tom Brady, it wasn't that offense.
Speaker 12 (07:56):
We felt confident at that point that I mean, we
can go in and compete with any and if they
messed around and let us hang around, the Cardiac Cats
were gonna pop up in Houston.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Hello everybody, and welcome to Carolina Panther playoff football. We
have reached the ultimate game. This is it. It doesn't
get any bigger than this, and all the hype, all
the hooplah leads to what will take place in front
of us over the next three hours. The Carolina Panthers
are in the Super Bowl. A good friend of mine,
a coach in this league many years ago, said NFL
(08:30):
stands for not for long, and trust me, the Panthers
would agree with that, because just two years ago this
team lost fifteen in a row and they were the
worst team in the NFL. But just two years later,
after John Fox was hired as head coach and instilled
his system and his belief that this team can win.
(08:50):
Here they are in the ultimate championship game of any sport, Super.
Speaker 7 (08:55):
Bowl thirty eight.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
For all the hype and hoop loves Super Bowl, the game,
at least early on lacked helium, sluggish, slow, no offense.
Speaker 7 (09:08):
Stephen Davis with the football looking for a hole up
the middle.
Speaker 16 (09:11):
Forget it, especially from the panther's side. They could not
get anything going on the offensive side whatsoever.
Speaker 7 (09:16):
The home in the pocket, some hate sat down.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
He goes the home in the pocket, feeling some heat,
avoids one passer.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
No going down, man. We couldn't run the ball. We
couldn't pass the ball.
Speaker 14 (09:28):
I just it was tough, tough, tough sled and you know,
definitely doubt would slip in because you're just.
Speaker 6 (09:34):
Going, man, I can't get anything going here.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Davis with the football trying to find a hole up
the middle and not much running room there. Look out
the steam skip on the car side, stiff arms one
tack or but it's only able to get up to
the line of scrim that's maybe one more depends on
the spot.
Speaker 7 (09:49):
Here's the loan of the pocket. Rolls to his right,
pumps one scrambles in trouble.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Nope, hey, he avoids the sack and now he's gonna
throw it away, and he was outside the pocket and
then hammered to the turf by ty war a number
ninety four, no flag, and the Panthers again will have
to punt the football and no one's getting open.
Speaker 10 (10:08):
Frustrating those possessions the first it was absolutely frustrating. I
was thinking about, dude, we gotta go ahead and pump
this ball out. If we don't do nothing else but punt,
that's a win my football, Eyves going, oh man, just
still make any mistakes, man, and live to play another day,
and get this ball out of territory.
Speaker 7 (10:27):
Drawway. The foster bounce us off one tackle and then
he's pushed back by the New England defense and a
gain of two yards. But that's all.
Speaker 18 (10:35):
It was a chess match. We weren't able to move
the football. They weren't able to move the football. We were,
you know, we did a little bit, they did a
little bit.
Speaker 16 (10:43):
It just felt like we might get shut out right again.
To the defense. Defense wasn't given up any points here either.
Speaker 7 (10:48):
Snaff a little old placement. Vinetary's kicked us out of
the way, and it is no god thirty six yard field.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
They'll try right Hashmark by Vinitary snap price, but kick
us block. They're ball rolling into the goal down around
the goal line, and the Panthers have stopped the Patriots.
Speaker 11 (11:06):
Again, the defense is ballet I think that that was
two balanced teams. I mean, sometimes you'll see a team
that you know their defense is really good, like Baltimore
when they won their first one with Ray Lewis, like
their defense was the shutout. Offense was okay, you just
don't turn it over. And then you'll see some other
offenses where they're just lighting the board up. But maybe
the defense you know, it's a shootout. I feel like
(11:26):
you saw two teams that were well balanced.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Super Bowl thirty eight remained scoreless for almost twenty seven
minutes until the Panthers blinked.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Third eleven Carolina from their twenty five, moving left to right,
no score.
Speaker 7 (11:45):
Below in the pocket wat Child, Oh he's hid, has.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Had a fumble, loose ball at the twenty and they're
gonna say New England's got it.
Speaker 14 (11:55):
It's funny when those plays happened, because in the NFC
Championship game, when the defense has something like that happened, well,
the whole stadium erupts and you know.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
There's music and all that stuff. Won a Super Bowl.
Speaker 14 (12:05):
It's like a neutral crowd, right, So it wasn't as
giant as a reaction from the bands as it would
have been if it was a home and away game
anything like that.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
But just oh crap, that's not good.
Speaker 14 (12:17):
Fortunately, our defense had been playing so well all year
that I didn't think that it was just all for
not you know, the game was over.
Speaker 6 (12:23):
But definitely knew that we would.
Speaker 14 (12:25):
We had been the first ones to kind of flinch
and give them a favorable situation.
Speaker 10 (12:30):
Those are the plays that turn games around. Those are
the plays that when you go to sideline, okay, all right,
there's always have to be a galvanizing moment. That play
was a galvanizing moment for the Patriots because now they're
like this, okay, all right, now we're ready. They're about
to fill this thing of us that we're ready. And
that changes leeks enough deficially on the sideline. Look at
(12:52):
this sideline and look at our sideline. It's gonna be
totally two different things. Our defensive the time.
Speaker 19 (12:56):
All all right, let's get ready going, Look we're gonna
go up to let's get over go do that, right,
And the sidelight like, Okay, we got him, baby, That's
what we've been waiting for is about to break.
Speaker 7 (13:06):
Here's the Dyke's about to break.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
And that's first sting goal to England, moving right the
left of the Carolina five yard line, split the lone
running back because Tom Brady barks out his call play
action fake throws over the middle, wide open touchdown stee
On franch right in the middle of the end zone
of the Patriots.
Speaker 7 (13:27):
All right, the lord first.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
While New England took the early seven to nothing lead,
there was no panic for Jake the Loan and the Panthers.
Speaker 13 (13:36):
Dan Henning was so prophetic leading up to that game.
I mean, he basically played out to us and needing
exactly how.
Speaker 6 (13:42):
The game was gonna play out.
Speaker 13 (13:44):
Men, I'm just telling you the first quarter, it's gonna
be tough sled. They were so big and so good
on defense. He said, it's gonna be like trying to
run into a brick wall. We're just gonna have to
stick with it, just keep it close, stick with it.
Second quarter and Dan's words, he goes, those big fat
boys are gonna get tired. He said, we're gonna start
to get something and we'll get some points.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Two receivers to the right, split backs behind the lall
he's under center. Jeff Fitchell kicks the snap, then the pocket.
He goes downfield. He throws it up for Steve Smith
and he's got a touchdown. Caroline up, Steve Smith met.
Speaker 7 (14:21):
Tyron cool down the far side line. Perfect probe. I
check the loan and the Panthers are on the board.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Steve Smith's game time touchdown came less than two minutes
after New England opened the scoring. Both offenses had woken
up second and.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Ten Patriots in their thirty fourth Brady will again work
shot gun. Here comes, He'll blitz up the middle. Brady rolls, stops, fires,
kick down. Peel got a man there, caught at the twenty.
He'd down with a fifteen yard line. It's Dean Britch.
Brady play actually throws over the middle, touchdown.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
The Pats led fourteen to seven with less than twenty
seconds to go in the first half, but the Panthers
had one more roar before halftime.
Speaker 7 (15:07):
First out and it's ironic play off the middle.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Foster Beck Hall Ernest Davis till the thirty five to
the thirty one call.
Speaker 8 (15:14):
Time out they do.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Bluba left tash bark fifty yard field, a'll try snap,
hic you Casey's.
Speaker 7 (15:19):
Kicking us up. Its go John Casey.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
At the end of the half and the Panthers are
more then four.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
The two teams combined for twenty four points in the
last three minutes and five seconds of the first half.
Carolina trailed fourteen to ten at the break. As the
players cleared the field, Jessica Simpson kickstarted the halftime festivities,
(15:54):
but Simpson had little to do with the next day's
halftime headline.
Speaker 20 (16:01):
Janet super Bowl halftime performance made news around the world.
The FCC received more than five hundred thousand complaints about
that broadcast. CBS was fined five hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
and then the NFL was asked to refund the ten
million dollars that they had been given to the halftime
show sponsor.
Speaker 14 (16:20):
That is the landmark that I used though to tell
people what Super Bowl I was in.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
They'd say, yeah, what super were you in? I was like, ah,
the one.
Speaker 14 (16:28):
With Janet Jackson, you know, Oh yeah, okay, yep, that's right,
I know, the one.
Speaker 20 (16:34):
The first ral ashes was it planned?
Speaker 8 (16:36):
Janet?
Speaker 9 (16:37):
No well, what people don't understand is he was to
take and rip the piece off that he did a
letter piece, right, but more came off than what was
supposed to.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Start with the phrase wardrobe malfunction in the pop culture
Waiting the Room, Jordan Gross witnessed another disturbance right before
the third quarter kickoff.
Speaker 14 (17:00):
The guy game on there and addressed like an official
and then ripped his clothes off down to his like
a little speedo and had an advertisement for Goldenpalace dot com,
which is like an online betting game, one of.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
The first ones. So there was a little bit of everything. Man,
it was a wild time.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
The third quarter mirrored the first. Neither team scored, but
with less than a minute to go in the quarter,
the Patriots looked poised to extend their lead.
Speaker 7 (17:27):
All right, Patriots back at the line.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
It's the Carolina forty two second down, twelve yards to
go for a New England first down of the final
minute of the third quarter, Super Bowl thirty eight. Play
action fake Brady throws right down the middle of the field,
cut at the twenty.
Speaker 7 (17:40):
That's the tight end of the ten caught at the
eight yard line, person goal.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
New England safety Mike Minter made the tackle on that play,
but paid an enormous price.
Speaker 21 (17:52):
When I heating at about the five yard line, my
foot slipped in a grass slippery turf field that Houston
had and it broke at that time, and I remember
coming to the sideliness and then I broke.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
My foot and everything like what broke your foot?
Speaker 21 (18:09):
And they were about taking my shoe offs, and now
I don't take it off, just tape it up.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
I'm I'm gonna finish this game. I'm not coming back
to see the Bowl.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Mentor would play the rest of the series and the
rest of the game.
Speaker 21 (18:21):
When the plays were going on, I didn't fill the
broken foot when a play was over. That's when I
felt curious, like some excruciating pain that went through your
body after every freaking snap.
Speaker 19 (18:34):
Man.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
So it's a mind over mounted.
Speaker 21 (18:36):
So when people say that your mind can go to places,
your body will follow.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
When the fourth quarter started, the Patriots led fourteen to
ten and had the ball on the Panthers two yard line,
first and.
Speaker 7 (18:52):
Golf from the tube.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Rady was gonna hand off Smith right side too one touchdown.
New England had watch Smith and they bob him in
the corner of the end zone.
Speaker 7 (19:02):
And that was real easy.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Antoine Smith's touchdown gave the Pats a twenty one to
ten lead. But Mike Rucker and the Cardiac Cats had
lived this movie before.
Speaker 11 (19:14):
I'm telling you the honest truth. There was no panic.
There was no panic until the clock kiss double zero.
We had been through all these situations already, and so
we felt very comfortable, feelt totally confident that you put.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Us out there and we can get the job done.
There was still almost an entire quarter to play. Carolina's
offense had now worn down New England's defense, and the
fourth quarter is where the Panthers excelled. Quarterback Jake Delone.
We kind of loosened up.
Speaker 13 (19:44):
We started doing two minute throwing the ball all over
the place, and I think confidence.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
We were a confident football team.
Speaker 13 (19:50):
And once that started, you know, from Moose to Ricky
the Steve, you know, it was the same cast of
characters like this is no big deal, this is what
we this is who we are, this is.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
What we do. Head coach John Foxx, well, we just.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
Opened it up.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I mean, Dan Annings did a great job. He went
now huddle. I mean, so we that opened the game up.
But It was a great move by our coaching staff,
and you know, it definitely changed the game.
Speaker 6 (20:17):
It was like, Okay, here we go.
Speaker 14 (20:18):
We're gonna win this thing because I could feel it
build and I could had earlier in the season at
multiple time.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Here's the loan back to throw with time brushed out
of the pocket to the left, still looking to throw now,
heaves it upfield for Smith, who's got it and stayed
in bounds at the forty five yard line.
Speaker 7 (20:35):
I don't know how we caught that ball.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
The loan will work under center this time second and
ten from his own forty five in the pocket Downfielder goes.
Speaker 7 (20:44):
Up for Smith.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
He's got it at the New England thirty five yard line.
Tackle at the thirty two, and it's another first down
along again. We'll work out of the shot going second
and ten Carolina in the thirty three.
Speaker 7 (20:54):
He's got the ball.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Drop player Sean Foster running left at the thirty breaks tackle.
Speaker 7 (20:58):
Quick's another one the.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Twenty side like ten five Fosters dimes on the anisode
touchdown Panthers quitting a chronicle run by the shun Fosters
pro fatacule at the.
Speaker 7 (21:11):
Line, turned it outside left thirty three yards.
Speaker 13 (21:15):
He's absolutely electric quick thirty one trap was to play
just to see him kind of bounce and he takes
off and I'm like, man, he's gonna score, and all
of a sudden he dies, and I think that's one
of the coolest posas I've ever seen on the run
when he just dies and he hangs the ball out
in the air with that with that arm.
Speaker 10 (21:31):
This dude just got a thirty three yard run.
Speaker 7 (21:33):
A testo.
Speaker 10 (21:34):
Dude, he just let everybody know that. I know, y'all,
everybody's talking about Stephen Davis.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
He's a guy.
Speaker 10 (21:40):
But guess who I am.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Down twenty one sixteen, the Panthers decided to try for
a two points conversion.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Panthers break the huddle flo under center. It's twenty one
sixteen that here's the all back to.
Speaker 7 (22:00):
Throw plenty of time.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Throws over the middle also and Muhammad was open in
the back of the end zone, right over the p
and Patriots and then they missed it.
Speaker 7 (22:10):
For PU How about that throw is late though, and
Mohammed was open.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
We had two point plays there. We just we just
missed them. And like anything, you know, it's a great
call until it's not.
Speaker 16 (22:20):
It's only good when it works, and so the risk
reward is when it doesn't work out. Now you're chasing
those points. I think you know, they felt like it's
the super Bowl, let's go for it.
Speaker 13 (22:28):
Gosh, Chasing points are difficult. Sometimes it's so easy to say,
now you kind of wish, uh, you just take the points,
take the points and see what happens in the end.
But you know, I guess at that point the chart,
you're playing the book. Whatever the chart said.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
The Patriots still led by five and had another chance
to go up two scores.
Speaker 7 (22:47):
So now it is third in Gold, New England.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
From a nine yard line, falk Is the running back,
Brown and motion far side left.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
And the pocket to throw.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Teams it up towards the end zone, intercept it Reggie
Howard coming up field of the five.
Speaker 7 (23:06):
There's a ten yard line. They finally got frusher on
Brady and.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
He forced it and there was Reggie Howard to pick it.
Speaker 13 (23:14):
Off, shocking Tom through a red zone interception. It was
a bad play by him with you we don't see
and undrafted out of Memphis. Reggie Howard former practice squad
teammate of mind with the Saints. So Reggie gets the pick,
and here we are and get another chance.
Speaker 10 (23:29):
They should go ahead and score, and they don't. They
don't score, and then we get the ball. This is
where the game changes.
Speaker 11 (23:36):
It's just something special about an interception because like you
are actually taking the ball away. That's fun to get
the sack, right, But when you're taking the ball away,
there's very few feelings like that because we know that
when this big game and that we're giving an offensive
chance to put points on the board. Big interception, that
was huge, That was huge. Four plays later, the Panther
(24:00):
stared at a third and ten from their own fifteen
yard line.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
So a huge play hair for the Carolina offense. And
that's this type of play.
Speaker 7 (24:10):
In the fourth quorder with their.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Team down, Jack Gonome has been making all year long.
Foster is coming as the running bat. Muhammad and crawler
out white near side left, Steve Smith wide right. Here's
the third and ten goal play. Action belong back to throw.
Nobody opened now sets out.
Speaker 7 (24:28):
Of the downfield. Muhammad, he's got it at the thirty.
He's in the twenty. It's defensil. Tucker touts down touchdown.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Carolina hold God goodness.
Speaker 16 (24:42):
In the eighty five yards well, so easy it is.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Mussin Mohammad's eighty five yard touchdown catch is still the
longest touchdown reception in Super Bowl history. It gave the
Panthers their first lead of the game. Carolina was seven
minutes and six seconds from a Super Bowl win.
Speaker 16 (25:07):
You're feeling really confident at this point. The way you're
putting points upon the boards. You're feeling like New England's
lost it and the Panthers have figured it out. Whatever
it is they were doing in the first half, it's gone.
The Panthers are exploding them in the passing game. Carolina
is back in this and not only back in it.
They're gonna win this bag thing.
Speaker 10 (25:23):
I'm thinking we're gonna win. We are gonna win a
super Bowl. We were too good offensively and defensively. Were
playing in these tough games all year low it's going
to swing out with because guess what, we've been in
the trenches and we've been there.
Speaker 6 (25:38):
I thought we would win. I really did. Our defense
was very, very good.
Speaker 14 (25:42):
Offensively, you know, we kind of felt like we were
starting to get our groove. We had good special teams.
I was feeling pretty comfortable with where we were at
and as the season had gone on and so many
overtime wins, I just didn't think that there was any
way we were gonna let this one get away from us.
Speaker 22 (25:57):
I mean, we're Cardiact cast We're gonna win this game.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
With the Panthers ahead twenty two to twenty one, John
Fox once again tried a two point conversion.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Goings in the backfield, goes in motion, right, here's the
loan back to throw short drop looks quotes it up for.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Dyson mistem When New England got the ball back, they
turned to Tom Brady.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Second and seventh Patriots in the Carolina forty seven.
Speaker 7 (26:26):
Brady has the snap from.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
The shot gun, rolls to the near side right, he'll
float out fail that it's caught breaking a tackle and
then out of bounds. David Gibbons and New England has
the ball of the Carolina twenty.
Speaker 8 (26:38):
Three yard line.
Speaker 16 (26:39):
And talk about Jake Delumbing clutched. Tom Brady invented that.
I mean, it's just like, if he's known for anything,
it's being a clutch performer, not only being one of
the greatest of all times, but also part of that
being winning games in the clutch fourth quarter overtime situations
like that. He built that reputation in seasons and in
games like that one against the Panthers.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Down Randy out of the shotgun, rolling near side, right,
steps up and.
Speaker 7 (27:04):
Throws, playing a cat and the five yard line and
stumming out of bounds at the three.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Here they come ball just outside the one second in goal.
Brady play action back to throw the metal touchdown.
Speaker 8 (27:17):
Patriots.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
New England tacked down a two point conversion to take
a twenty nine to twenty two lead with less than
three minutes to go for the Cardiac Cats. This was
a familiar feeling. Quarterback Jake Delane.
Speaker 13 (27:38):
We were very comfortable in the two minute situation. We
knew we were going down to score. I mean that
was I know I keep saying that, but that's what
the mentality of that team was. Yeah, we're going down,
We're going to score.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
No huddle, shotgun, second and one running play, Foster looking
for a hole. He's got it to the thirty five
to the thirty six in a first down the home
out of the shotgun, no huddle, back to throw, doubt,
Kield goes He's got Muhammad open at the peg. Drift
forty five and out of bounds along the.
Speaker 7 (28:04):
Near sideline first and tenth Carolina.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Delomb under center Fosters is running back play action along
the pass rip time downfield.
Speaker 7 (28:14):
He's got crawled at the twenty.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Tricky crawled at the fifteen to the fourteen yard line.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Down by seven, the Panthers had to the ball at
the Patriots twelve yard line.
Speaker 6 (28:27):
Seventy two.
Speaker 13 (28:27):
Reno is the exact same play that we scored to
be Jacksonville on first game of the season.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
The win against the Jaguars in Week one put the
Panthers on a five month cardiac quest. That was the
game in which Jake Delom came off the bench and
conjured the first of many comebacks.
Speaker 8 (28:49):
Fires for prowling the ends on, hey got.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
It that dam Now. With the Panthers down seven in
the waning moments of the Super Bowl, Delom dialed up
Ricky Proll once more stafters.
Speaker 7 (29:03):
Go without a huddle shotgun formation.
Speaker 13 (29:06):
That was the beauty of what we did to minute
offense is that we could run all the same plays
over and over again, but you just wherever you ended
up on the previous play, you just stayed in that position.
So in essence, everybody had to know all four positions.
And that's what was so good about our guys.
Speaker 7 (29:22):
The LOLM is ruddy, He's got the ball and back
the throw.
Speaker 13 (29:24):
You could tell they were coming with all out pressure,
and I felt very comfortable making that throw to Ricky.
Ricky wasn't going to cut it short. He was going
to do the Ricky prol two step, as he used
to like to call it.
Speaker 7 (29:34):
Look spots it in the end zone.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Wide open Touchdoc Carolina, Rickey Prole, unbelievable, Yes.
Speaker 7 (29:44):
And he was wide open. Kyle Snapp, here's the place
with Casey's kicked. He's got it. We're all tied.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
We're tied in the thirty eighth Super Bowl, twenty nine
a piece for the minute eight to go in the
fourth quarter. And the Panthers have never given up all
season long. They've never given up, and here they're down
twenty one to ten in the fourth quarter and suddenly we're.
Speaker 7 (30:06):
All tied again.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Carolina had been involved in seven games decided by three
points or less. The Panthers had won them all. Many
of those wins came on the leg of John Casey.
Speaker 21 (30:23):
Without John Casey, were not even talking about the two
thousand and three Carolina Pimphs and Casey.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Will kick off right the left.
Speaker 7 (30:33):
Here's the boot. Oh no, it was out of bound.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Oh my goodness, John Casey can't believe what he just did.
Speaker 11 (30:43):
The ball was illegally kicked off on a bounds There
will be placed at the forty yard line.
Speaker 7 (30:48):
Out swinger's ball first down out, like putting her t
shot in the woods on the eighteenth tea box.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Panthers team historian David.
Speaker 17 (30:56):
Brow John got an unfairshake. Everybody wants to talk about
the kickoff went out of bounds. We could sit here
and I can call up ten plays from the game
that if they had gone a different way. It doesn't
come down to that kick.
Speaker 13 (31:08):
You just heard a gasp from the crowd. But honestly,
my mind went to, Okay, our defense is gonna stop him.
Speaker 6 (31:16):
And when they go to kick a field goal, we're
going to blocking.
Speaker 13 (31:18):
I mean, that's really and truly. I don't know if
that's just being so naive, but that's kind of what
the thought process was following his team.
Speaker 6 (31:26):
They still had to score.
Speaker 14 (31:27):
It's not like you kick a ball out of bounds
and the other team automatically gets points.
Speaker 6 (31:31):
You know there's a whole follow up series that has
to happen. So now no panic there, just Tom Brady.
You know, we now know how great.
Speaker 14 (31:38):
He is in those situations. He just went down the
field and kicked our butt.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
The Patriots started the drive at their own forty yard
line with all three timeouts. Two plays later, New England
crossed midfield, but then the Panthers got a break.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Two timeouts left four, Newing and Brady back to throw
floats it down field. Perhp's got it flag on the
play man, who's it gonna be on? Yes, and that's
the call offensive pass.
Speaker 7 (32:11):
Interferrence good call, and Cherry called at first.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
The penalty backed up the Patriots to their own forty
three with less than a minute to go.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Brady'll work out of the shotgun. This time, here comes
the blitz. Brady's gonna go near sideline to Brown at
the forty five to the fifty.
Speaker 7 (32:29):
Come on, you gotta push.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Him back, and they do, but he gets to the
forty seven yard line.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Is he Pete?
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Ricky manning that time branch out to the right, two
receivers left. Brady will works shotgun from his own forty
three first and twenty and Brady's gonna roll to the
fire side, look fire down field. That's caught great catching
traffic at the Carolina forty five. There were a few
situations on that drive where the Panthers could have gotten
off the field.
Speaker 6 (32:53):
You know, maybe if they brought.
Speaker 8 (32:54):
More pressure they would have affected Brady.
Speaker 23 (32:57):
Well, I mean, I don't we right, it's a situation
where and you know, do you go out to Brady
and then give an opportunity for this guy to have
a one on one situation with somebody you know, or
do you go to your you know what people will
call Tampa two.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
It's a defense that you know, we made it to
the Super Bowl.
Speaker 12 (33:18):
On you trust Mike Turgervak. You trust the guys to
make the calls. They had gotten us there all year.
So we don't second guess whether or not we should
have been pressuring Tom Brady. We had a responsibility to
try to get to Tom Brady. And although we got
to him and we hit him and you knock him
on the ground, we knew he didn't like that.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
But of course.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
If you're playing zone late in the game, the guys
who he is for a reason.
Speaker 12 (33:39):
That's seventeen of those things for a reason, and you
found a way to pick us apart and find some
some saft spots.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
In the zone.
Speaker 7 (33:45):
Brady, I'm a shotgun. He's got the ball.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Pressure throws their sideline caught, make catch up.
Speaker 7 (33:53):
For twenty four. Kean prants again and now angle well.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Eight seconds left the call of timeand.
Speaker 8 (34:01):
That's their third final five out.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Dion Branch's reception gave New England to the ball at
the Carolina twenty three yard line. Mike Mintor, playing with
a broken foot, nearly broke up the pass.
Speaker 21 (34:16):
Yeah, with a healthy foot, I'm breaking on that ball
quicker and definitely either picking that ball off that it
felt like it was floating to me and or knocking
it down. So yeah, I do. I think I think
about it every day, man. To be honest with you,
(34:38):
it's a it's a thing where I'm saying, man, I
think if I got a healthy foot, man, I might
be in the history books a different way, dude.
Speaker 10 (34:48):
Mike never told me it was playing with a broken foot.
You shouldn't even be in the picture with a broken foot,
he read to play perfectly.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
The page triots were set up with nine seconds left
and the game tied. Adam Vin Terry had a forty
one yard field gold truck, but he had already missed
one kick and the Panthers had blocked another.
Speaker 7 (35:17):
Oh can we block another one?
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Snap hip us on the way by Venitary, dead solid
perfect four seconds left and New England has the late
thirty two to twenty nine.
Speaker 7 (35:35):
He hit it.
Speaker 13 (35:36):
I'm telling you you're gonna think I'm insane. I looked
at Steve and I went to him, was like, Hey,
this is it.
Speaker 6 (35:43):
You're running it back.
Speaker 13 (35:44):
There's no question, like, this is our We're winning.
Speaker 6 (35:47):
Some of them were like, we're winning. Yeah, Steve's gonna
run it back.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Venitary ready to kick off from his thirty from left
or right before.
Speaker 7 (35:58):
Flock doesn't start.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Kill the ball cup alright, team end over end Rod
Smart's coming out.
Speaker 7 (36:06):
Here's the last play. Ten Smart to the.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Sideline, twenty crop at the twenty and it's over now.
Speaker 7 (36:13):
The New England Patriots have won the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
What a valiant effort by the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 7 (36:21):
They did everything but win this game fairly twenty one
to ten.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
In the fourth quarter, they actually had the lead twenty
to twenty one, but it was just.
Speaker 7 (36:39):
Too much for them to stop. Tom Brady in company
on their final drive, but.
Speaker 24 (36:46):
An absolutely what a valiant effort by this tenth of
buck Look, i'll tell you what the office I thought,
you responded, defense got a little bit lex but they
did a great job of bussa back and fighting all.
Speaker 7 (36:57):
Through this game. It was a tremendous season.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
And believe me, back in July, who was thinking that
the Panthers would get to the Super Bowl. But they
got here with a blue collar team, guys who left
their egos at the door and were the epitome of
what a team is in this league. No superstars, fifty
three guys who hung together all season long, and they
(37:22):
lose by three in the biggest game.
Speaker 7 (37:25):
Of the year.
Speaker 14 (37:26):
NFL Films has a pretty good shot of me kind
of walking off the field looking dejected as the confetti's
flying behind me, you know, from them and just I
mean it's not the most eloquent, but just this sucks.
Speaker 6 (37:40):
You know, we just lost the Super Bowl. You know, like,
that's not how this was supposed to go.
Speaker 14 (37:47):
And also, you know, shortly thereafter there's some relief as
you kind of come down from all of that, You're.
Speaker 7 (37:53):
Like, wow, that was a lot.
Speaker 6 (37:55):
That was a lot of season. That was a lot
of game, That was a lot of emotion.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
Well, I remember walking out of the stadium with my
oldest son, Natt, and he was crying, and I.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
Said, Sonny, what's wrong? He goes, I wanted this one
for Sam.
Speaker 21 (38:10):
Every single time NFL game come home, or if I
see the Patriots, or if I see Tom Brady or
if I see Belichick. You know, and you gotta imagine
me now coaching, I'm always getting asked about the game,
So I'm thinking about the game pretty much almost every day.
Speaker 11 (38:32):
To me, we were going to be back in the
super Bowl next year, in the year after that and
the year after that.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
So you know, from that standpoint, it was lost on me,
but you know was great.
Speaker 6 (38:42):
I really thought that we'd get a chance to be
back there. We just had a good young team and
we never got it done.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
In Roger Cohn's classic The Boys of Summer, the story
of the nineteen fifties Brooklyn Dodgers, there's a memorable in
the beginning. You may glory in a team triumphant, but
you fall in love with the team in defeat. The
Cardiac Cats ultimately came up one heart beat short. There
(39:15):
would be no name engraved on the Lombardi Trophy. Instead,
Panthers etched their names in the hearts of a city
and its fans.
Speaker 6 (39:26):
Big moment Charlotte and Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
A lot of people in Charlotte the Panthers.
Speaker 6 (39:31):
Were their second favorite team.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Well, I think after that, I think, you know, people
in Charlotte Panthers started becoming their first favorite team.
Speaker 18 (39:38):
It was the Cardiac Cats. It was a nail binder,
white knucklin. You could not leave the room because so
many different things can happen.
Speaker 14 (39:48):
It's amazing how well we'll remember the Cardiac Cats, the
personality of that team.
Speaker 6 (39:53):
Something I'm forever grateful to be a part of.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
The legacy is Keith Pounding.
Speaker 12 (39:56):
It was coined before that playoff game against the Dallas
ca We played that way all year before Sam Mills
gave They gave us that. But it is about a
team that was built and put together on a bunch
of second, third, last chance guys.
Speaker 11 (40:12):
We were the first to be able to bring that
type of joy to the Carolinas.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
And still it.
Speaker 11 (40:19):
Gives me goosebumps when people come up and you know
they were like, Hey, I was ten years old and
you know, blah blah blah. You know.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
To me, that's what the sport's about.
Speaker 11 (40:27):
For me to tell my stories and for them to
also tell me their stories, because I want to know
what they were doing, how did they see that, how'd
they see that play?
Speaker 1 (40:35):
How they see that win?
Speaker 11 (40:37):
And I think that that's the joy that I get
now in the phase of my life.
Speaker 22 (40:41):
The standard, the standard in every way, the standard in
terms of chemistry, the standard in terms of fun, the
standard in terms of what it means to win, what
it means to battle, never lose, keep pounding.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
In the face of adversity and improbable odds. The Cardiac
cats taught us to keep believing, to keep pushing, to
keep trying, and of course to.
Speaker 8 (41:07):
Keep heep fires for prolling the NSA.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
He God touchdown, big hole, down the sideline.
Speaker 7 (41:19):
He's gone, and.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
The Panthers are gonna pull another one out of their head.
Nice Tortianza touchdown, fires over the medal?
Speaker 7 (41:25):
Is that intercepted?
Speaker 8 (41:26):
Yes, it is up, it is gone.
Speaker 7 (41:29):
Panthers have won in it over times man head the
forty five to the forny. I thought it's right? Is
the honey ten fine touchdown? Yes, Charlotte. There is a
super Bowl and we're in it.
Speaker 17 (41:43):
Cardiac
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!