HOUSTON – What a difference a couple of years make.
When he left his house Sunday with his bags packed for Super Bowl XXXVIII, Carolina Panthers safety Mike Minter could barely get to his driveway without everyone and his brother stopping to wish him good luck.
Had this occurred during the 2001 season, Minter could have walked from Asheville to Elizabeth City in full uniform and barely inspired a glance from his fellow Carolinians. Those who did take notice probably would have walked on the other side of the street for fear of him being another one of those law-breaking Panthers.
Such is the difference between being 1-15 and a public embarrassment and being NFC champions and one victory away from being a world champion.
“It’s a situation where it’s love everywhere,” Minter said. “Everybody is totally behind us: “Good luck in the Super Bowl’ and that stuff. It’s flipped. But it’s a good thing.”
Oh, it’s more than a good thing. It’s downright miraculous. It’s a turnabout that presidential politicians couldn’t pull off on their best days. It’s the ultimate in comebacks.
Two years ago, the Panthers ended their season with a 38-6 loss at home to the New England Patriots, the same team they’ll play Sunday at Reliant Stadium in Super Bowl XXXVIII. On that particular day, the Panthers became the first team in National Football League history to lose 15 straight games in a single season.
Only 21,070 fans – about 52,000 below capacity – showed up to witness the record-setting event, and when the final gun went off only about 1,000 – most of them Patriots fans – were left in the stands.
“It was like the sun was shining only on their side of the field,” Carolina defensive tackle Brentson Buckner told the Charlotte Observer. “I would never wish what happened to us that day on anyone in the NFL. It was awful.”
It was so awful that it inspired owner Jerry Richardson to make drastic changes. A series of off-the-field catastrophes – the worst of which were the Rae Carruth murder trial, Fred Lane’s shooting death and Kerry Collins’ drinking problem – had poisoned the team’s image in the community; now the Panthers were the worst team in football to boot.
First, Richardson fired coach George Seifert and restructured his front office. Then he re-evaluated everything he thought he knew about building a winning franchise and set about developing a long-term solution to the problem.
His first moves were to promote salary-cap manager and former sportswriter Marty Hurney to general manager and hire New York Giants defensive coordinator John Fox to be his head coach. Then he made a promise to both that they would have everything they needed to be successful.
As it turned out, things weren’t as bleak as they appeared. When Fox and Hurney evaluated the roster, they recognized that they had a core of promising players who were worth keeping around. Through the draft and free agency, the Panthers had assembled a cast of capable veterans (among them Minter, Buckner, end Mike Rucker, receiver Muhsin Muhammed, center Jeff Mitchell, tackle Todd Steussie and punter Todd Sauerbrun).
What’s more, they had hit the jackpot in the 2001 draft with linebacker Dan Morgan, defensive tackle Kris Jenkins, receiver Steve Smith and safety Jarrod Cooper. Though Richardson had spent foolishly on free agents in the past, he still had a reasonably talented outfit.
In fact, 20 members of the 1-15 team are still around, including 10 starters.
Under Seifert, the Panthers simply underachieved. The dead weight – much of it unloaded when Fox and Hurney took control – had pulled the rest of the team under.
When Fox took over, the first thing he did was challenge the players. He told them that their 1-15 record didn’t equate with their talent. He basically challenged their manhood.
“That’s the biggest insult for a football player,” Buckner said. “(He said), “You just weren’t tough enough to win.’ I’m sitting there thinking, “I’m an NFL football player; we’re the toughest guys in the world.’ “
Not in Fox’s world they weren’t.
Before long, big-money veterans like Sean Gilbert, Tshimanga Biakabutuka, Doug Evans and Jimmy Hitchcock were gone. In their place came draft choices Julius Peppers, DeShaun Foster and Will Witherspoon and midrange free agents Terry Cousin, Rodney Peete, Mark Fields and Jermaine Wiggins.
Fox sought to build on the defensive side of the football and attack opponents with an aggressive scheme. The addition of Peppers, the second pick overall in the ’02 draft, allowed him to field one of the most imposing front fours in the NFL.
By the end of the year, the Panthers had gone from last in the league in total defense to second. They finished 7-9 in Fox’s first season and ended the season winning four of their last five.
“We had the talent, we just didn’t have the direction,” Minter said. “He came in and gave us that. He gave us confidence. We began to build confidence in our head coach and in one another and that’s why we turned it around.”
It was Fox’s influence and continued success in the personnel department that kept things moving forward.
During last off-season, Fox and Hurney decided to address the offense and signed free-agent quarterback Jake Delhomme, who they thought was just the game manager they needed to help them overcome their tendency to lose close games.
This season, Delhomme has led winning drives in the final 2 minutes of four games. He, along with cornerback Ricky Manning Jr. and tackle Jordan Gross, both rookies, have provided the boost that has pushed the Panthers to the top.
Yet it is those who went through the 2001 season who deserve much of the credit.
“When you go through something like that and come out of that, you appreciate everything that you have at that point, simply because you had to go through troubled times,” Minter said. “I think that’s when you build character when you go through troubled times. That’s what happened. We went through it, the core guys who went through it, that’s why we’re so strong today.”
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