1996 PANTHERS A SPECIAL TEAM It s been 20 years since the Panthers, then in only their second year of existence, came within one victory of making the Super Bowl. For those who were there, it seems like yesterday. When they get together or even simply share a phone call, it doesn t take members of the Carolina Panthers first divisional championship team long to start partying like it s 1996 all over again. Although it has been two decades since the Panthers won the NFC West division title and then defeated the defending Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys at home to advance to the NFC championship game at Green Bay, it doesn t seem like it to these guys when they get together and start reminiscing about that incredible run in what was only the franchise s second season of existence. It s amazing that it was 20 years ago. That just floors me, says Anthony Johnson, who entered the season as a journeyman and BY JOE MENZER exited as a star at running back. You see it whenever the Panthers invite former players back for functions, as they did recently before a preseason game in August. The team from 1996, which also included most of the players from the inaugural team in 1995, always is well represented and soon after a few of them get in a room together, they re usually CAROLINA PANTHERS / 17.10 / 17
LEFT: Sam Mills (51) during a game against the Jacksonville Jaquars in 1996. CENTER: Running back Anthony Johnson (23) rushes with New Orleans Saints defensive end Brady Smith (91) in pursuit at then-ericsson Stadium on Oct. 20, 1996. RIGHT: Wesley Walls with the ball during a game against the San Francisco 49ers. It was one of those things where so many guys felt like they had something to prove... It was kind of like that Santa Claus Land of the Misfits, you know? We were the toys no one wanted to play with until suddenly we came back in style again. - DWIGHT STONE joking and laughing and, mentally, right back where they were 20 years ago. From the time you see somebody, you make a little crack or remark in a way that it brings back a memory from that locker room, or the bus, or on a plane, in a meeting, says Dwight Stone, a special-teams standout on the 96 team. You reflect back on things and you start laughing. It brings that youngster back out in you. It makes you think, You know, we started something here. We can always look back and say that no matter how many teams come behind us for the Carolina Panthers, we were the foundation. We were here first. Stone, who played for the Panthers from 1995 through 1998 and logged 14 NFL seasons in all, says the first two Carolina teams were a perfect mix of young and veteran players hungry to show the entire League what they could do. It was one of those things where so many guys felt like they had something to prove, Stone says. You had young guys coming in. You had older guys where teams had felt like they could get rid of us. It was kind of like that Santa Claus Land of the Misfits, you know? We were the toys no one wanted to play with until suddenly we came back in style again. Wide receiver Willie Green says he still marvels at the close team chemistry that team was able to develop. It was such a family-oriented team, Green says. When you said something to a guy and you had issues on the field, you knew that he had your back. It wasn t like one of those teams where you were competing against each other. We looked at 18 / www.panthers.com
it like everybody had a role, and we helped each other. When we were in practice, and we made a mistake as a wide receiver, if we gave off tendencies, the defensive backs would tell us afterward. And it was the same way with us. We would constantly communicate with each other to try to make each other better. Even those who weren t there for the franchise s first season readily admit that the foundation really began being laid in earnest in 1995 when the Panthers erased the sting of an 0-5 start to finish 7-9. That included tight end Wesley Walls, a free agent who was left with a lasting impression when, as a member of the New Orleans Saints in 95, he played against the Panthers in their makeshift home at Clemson. The Panthers played all of their home games that year at Clemson while construction of what is now known as Bank of America Stadium was being completed in uptown Charlotte. I knew I was going to be a free agent after that season in 95. So I had my eyes open, Walls said. A lot of people were talkin up the Panthers, what kind of team they had that first year. That included Sam Mills, the Panthers defensive leader who had been a teammate with Walls in New Orleans before Mills came to Carolina in 1995. Everything goes back to 95, Walls said. Playing against them, I could tell they had great leaders like Sam. I knew Sam, had played with Sam and really respected Sam. The Panthers wasted no time in going after Walls once the free-agent signing period opened that off-season. Coach Capers was the first guy who called, Walls said. He called at 12:01 that night and had me on the first flight the next morning. When I landed, (general manager) Bill Polian drove me down to Winthrop. He offered me a job. And Coach Capers told me, Wesley, if you give us a chance here, it s going to be the perfect fit for you. We re going to make you a star. I felt like just giving me a chance to start was all I was looking for. When he said he was going to make me a star, I knew it was where I needed to be. And he was right. Walls was a key acquisition, but he was not alone. Also signed in free agency were cornerback Eric Davis, linebacker and future Hall of Famer Kevin Greene, and offensive lineman Greg Skrepenak. In the draft, the Panthers added offensive punch for a team that needed it by picking up running back Tshimanga Biakabutuka, wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad and running back/kick returner Winslow Oliver with their first three picks. Johnson, who had been picked up off the waiver wire in November of 1995 and played sparingly -- mostly on special teams-- toward the end of the first season, thought he saw the writing on the wall. Or at least on the depth chart, where he initially was buried at running back. Capers was using him on special teams and mostly at fullback, which Johnson thought he was undersized and ill-suited for. So during training camp, he went in and asked Capers to be released. Being on the bottom of the depth chart wasn t as much of a problem, so to speak, says Johnson, who is now team chaplain for the Jacksonville Jaguars. I was blessed to have the desire and skill to be part of a CAROLINA PANTHERS / 17.10 / 19
LEFT: Carolina Panthers wide receiver Dwight Stone (80) and guard Matt Elliot (52) on the sidelines during a win against the 49ers. RIGHT: Former Panthers linebacker Kevin Greene (91) looks for head coach Dom Capers to dump Gatorade on him after defeating the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, Dec. 8, 1996. The Panthers won the game, 30-24. 20 / www.panthers.com team. It was more that I didn t want to play a position that I didn t feel suited for so I asked Coach Capers to release me. He was very gracious. He entertained a dialogue with me. But then he said, Anthony, I think you re more valuable to us for what you bring on special teams and for how you re able to play both positions (fullback as well as running back). So we re not going to do that. It wasn t what I wanted to hear. But I respected him and I respected his decision, and I trusted in God to work it all out. So I said, OK, Coach, I m going to give it all I ve got. Bringing in the likes of Walls, Davis and Greene and refusing to release Johnson would end up paying huge dividends for the 1996 Panthers. So did, in Stone s mind, management s decision to transport the team in three chartered buses to each home game the previous season. That, he insists, is when the Panthers that flourished in 96 came to form bonds in 95 that carried over. You never knew what bus you would get on, Stone says. You could sit wherever you wanted to sit. I would try to go on different buses to get to know each player. I think everybody was doing that to try to get a feel for it. When you are on the bus, you had nowhere to go. Conversations come up. You would get to know a guy more off the field than you did on the field. Your family would maybe roll down there with other family members. It just made us closer as a team. I think if you were trying to do something like that, it may not be the luxury way. But as far as getting to know someone, learning about their family and some of the more important things aside from football, it is something I would recommend. But I m sure no one will ever do something like that again. Once the season began, it all blended together beautifully. Although the Panthers were mostly a running team, Walls caught a team-high 61 passes for 753 yards and 10 touchdowns. We had a young quarterback in Kerry Collins. I was kind of his security blanket, Walls said. We had one heck of a defense
that kept putting us in great field position and next thing you knew, we d be in the red zone. That s where I made my living. Johnson s patience and Capers insistence that he stick around paid off when Biakabutuka, the first-round draft pick, was lost for the season after suffering a knee injury at Jacksonville in the season s fourth game. All he did was rush for 1,120 yards and six touchdowns as Howard Griffith emerged as the punishing blocker at fullback that Johnson lacked the size to be. Wide receiver Mark Carrier, now the team s player engagement director, caught 58 passes for a team-high 808 yards and six touchdowns. Green caught 46 balls for 614 yards and three touchdowns. Collins, the franchise s first-ever draft pick in 1995, was good enough at quarterback in his second NFL season. And when Collins was hurt, Steve Beuerlein, another free-agent acquisition the previous offseason, proved to be more than adequate as his substitute. The two QBs combined to throw for more than 3,330 yards and 22 touchdowns, with only 11 interceptions between them. The defense, led by Mills, featured the Salt and Pepper outside linebacker tandem of Lamar Lathon and Greene, who combined for 28 sacks. Mills added another 5.5 and always made sure everyone was in the right place. Greene also cites a players-only meeting the Panthers held after slumping at midseason as critical. Afterward, they reeled off seven consecutive wins to finish the season 12-4, capped by beating Pittsburgh at home to seal the NFC West title. It was the type of frank, open meeting that had the potential to tear a lesser team apart, but instead brought this one even closer as a unit. We had what I would say was a cometo-jesus meeting. We told the coaches to leave and just had a real open discussion about what we needed from each other, Greene said. In my opinion, the guys took the criticism to heart, whatever the criticism may have been, and left it in that room. After that, it was something different and I felt it made us better as a team. It did not separate us. And the Panthers added yet another secret weapon, at least in Stone s mind. Asked what he remembers most about that season, he cites a crusade Reverend Billy Graham brought to the Carolina stadium. That was the year we didn t lose a game in that stadium, Stone says. I think after that, everybody was trying to get Pastor Graham to bless their stadium. The Panthers went on to beat the Cowboys in the divisional playoffs, improving their record in their first season at their real home to 9-0. They fell short of the Super Bowl only after Green Bay pulled away in the second half of the NFC championship game at frigid Lambeau Field. It was just one season, but the memories forged have lasted the players a lifetime. That much remains evident whenever they share an alumni event or even a simple phone call. I played 30 years of football through high school, college and the NFL, and rarely do you have a team that was as close as that team was, Walls said. It s rare that you have that kind of closeness on a football team. We can be away from each other and not talk for a year or 18 months or two years and as soon as we see each other, we go right back to that 1996 frame of mind. CAROLINA PANTHERS / 17.10 / 21