It was like all of the pre-Tepper era. Bonkers, in the best possible ways.

The good times did not last as long as the early Hornets, where things crashed hard after the 1996 season (where we thought we were set to be top in the NFC for awhile) and stayed down for awhile. So while there was that new sheen, it didn’t last. The Kerry Collins saga was an especially depressing dose of reality.

And due to a lot of loyalty to non-local teams (especially the Redskins/Commanders, Cowboys, and Steelers), the city didn’t quite go full-in on fandom with the Panthers like Charlotte did with the Hornets.

Exciting with no big expectations. Making the NFC Championship in our second season was nuts, especially by beating the Cowboys and keeping them to 3 points. Our offense kinda sucked but our defense kept us in games. I was a kid during these years so I had blind loyalty which still carried over to today.