The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The team is headquartered in Bank of America Stadium in uptown Charlotte; the stadium also serves as the team’s home field. They are one of the few NFL teams to own the stadium they play in, which is legally registered as Panther Park, LLC. The Panthers were founded on October 26th, 1993 by former NFL player Jerry Richardson and began playing in 1995 under head coach Dom Capers and general manager Bill Polian.
Since then, Carolina has appeared four times in the Super Bowl, most recently losing to Denver Broncos 24-10 during Super Bowl 50 on February 7th, 2016. They have won six NFC South championships since their inception and have made two appearances in conference championship games following both 2003 & 2015 seasons respectively. In 2018, after an 11-5 season that ended with a loss to New Orleans Saints in Divisional Round of playoffs and firing previous head coach Ron Rivera following nine seasons with organization; Carolina hired Matt Rhule from Baylor University to become new head coach for 2019 season onward.
Under Rhule’s leadership Panthers went 5-11 record while dealing with many changes within roster due to several injuries throughout campaign such as star running back Christian McCaffrey missing 13 games due various ailments or defensive end Stephen Weatherly who was acquired midseason via trade from Minnesota Vikings but only played three contests before being placed on injured reserve list until end of year For 2020 season Panthers selected quarterback Teddy Bridgewater through free agency who had previously started 33 games over five years for New Orleans Saints before signing multiyear deal worth $63 million including $33 million guaranteed money which marked highest contract ever given out by franchise since its creation 25 years ago. With this addition along with some other key acquisitions like veteran running back Mike Davis from Chicago Bears or cornerback Eli Apple from Las Vegas Raiders; hopes remain high that 2021 could be breakthrough year for Carolina’s long awaited return trip back into postseason contention culminating potentially into another deep run towards Super Bowl contention if all goes according plan come fall time around!