Some Panthers fans refuse to give up hope as home stadium gets invaded by Cowboys

Every game for 26 years, even way back when his favorite team played its home games in Clemson, Tom Simmons would drive three-plus hours from Wilmington to the Carolina Panthers’ home stadium with the belief that his team — however outmatched — would win.

But on Sunday morning?

“We’re going to get our butt beat today,” Simmons said with a smile and shrug.

He made something else clear, too.

“I know we’re going to get beat today, but it doesn’t matter,” said Simmons, who was wearing a Frankie Luvu jersey and a multi-Panther-colored goatee at a pregame tailgate put on by supporter group Roaring Riot.

“I don’t care who we’re playing, we’re coming,” he continued, “and we’re going to be up in those stands, and we’re going to be loud, and every time we get a first down, we’re going to chant ‘Move those chains!’” He chuckled again: “We may not move them much today, but we’re going to try to do what we can do.”

Not far away, his son, Christian, chimed in: “Is it hard to be a Panther fan? Nah. It’s never hard. Even the 1-15 season, it wasn’t hard.”

To some, that’s true.

But let’s face it, if you ask most people what it’s like to be a Panthers fan in 2023, different answers come.

Pretty much all Carolina fans could reel off their 1-9 team’s systemic issues in a steady stream of consciousness, all of which were on display in their 33-10 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. What would that rant sound like? It’d probably begin with something about rookie quarterback Bryce Young still trying to find his footing, and move on to the staunch but injured defense and the lauded but underachieving-to-date coaching staff. It’d then devolve into a venting session about how Carolina is on pace to win two or three games, and that the team doesn’t have a first-round pick next year, and that its best player has made it clear he wants to stay in Charlotte but his representation and the team unimaginably haven’t agreed on an extension, and ...

Well ... and so forth.

Through all the low moments 2023 has posed, though, Sunday could’ve conceivably been the lowest as a fan of the Carolinas’ NFL franchise. The NFL’s most global franchise invaded Charlotte and took over Bank of America Stadium. There were 73,543 tickets distributed. Most were Cowboys fans. Single-game ticket prices on TicketMaster were starting at $125 a pop Sunday morning, a product of the Dallas takeover.

The Panthers prepared to function from the silent count Sunday and even worked out of it a bit — but that didn’t change the fact that the stadium’s loudest moments were Cowboy triumphs, including Young’s third pick-6 of the season that put the game away for good.

“I have great appreciation for fan bases wherever I’ve been, and what that means to a team, and what that means to a city,” Panthers head coach Frank Reich said. “So I understand the level of frustration by the fans. You know, we had the change here that we had, and you start to set things in place to make a change. And you want it to happen overnight. Sometimes it takes longer than you want.

“But you have to keep your head down, be strong willed, keep the vision clear, come to work every day, and you gotta be able to fight your way through tough times.”

It was impossible to not notice how the Cowboys swarmed the stadium. Players said it was something they noticed from pregame all throughout Sunday afternoon. Fans couldn’t miss it, too.

“This is obviously a results business, right? Results driven,” veteran offensive guard Austin Corbett told The Charlotte Observer after the game. “If (fans) don’t want to be a part of it, that’s fine, but we’re going to continue to keep working. ... We truly love this city. We know how much this city cares. We want to put on a show for them. It’s up to us to get it taken care of in this moment.”

Added Corbett: “You have these teams — the Cowboys, the 49ers, the Packers, the Vikings — these guys travel well. It’s a part of it. I’ve been on a silent count at home plenty of times before. This wasn’t anything new. It was just part of the game.”

Same went with Donte Jackson, the team’s cornerback who is among the team’s longest-tenured players.

“We appreciate the ones who are wanting to see us win and be successful,” Jackson told The Observer. “And we understand the ones who are kinda p’d off, or frustrated, we understand that. We want to win too. It just sucks.”

The most dedicated Panthers fans knew this sort of result was coming. Simmons did. So did many of his friends at the tailgate.

Kevin Weiker, the superfan who goes by “Carolina Reaper” that features a head-to-toe get-up including a full-on Panther mask and a reaper sword, called this “one of the tougher seasons” but stopped short of comparing it to the lifeless 2010 2-14 year led by quarterback Jimmy Clausen.

Loretta To, who lives in Atlanta but considers herself a Charlottean and runs the Roaring Riot chapter in Atlanta, cited that Clausen year, too, as proof of her fandom, adding, “I cannot abandon my team.”

Hope is and was elsewhere, clearly, too.

Chris Harmon, who works for Roaring Riot, cited a bunch of evidence that dedicated fandom hasn’t wavered even perhaps as casual ones have.

“There are people who are definitely lethargic,” Harmon said, “but there are still a bunch of people who are very enthusiastic. Next week, we’re taking over 200 people to Nashville for the game. We’re taking 200 people to Jacksonville in December. ... So people are still excited about things.”

Which is true.

All of it is.

It’s something players and coaches and fans all agree on — even on one of the toughest days of the season to be wearing a Process Blue jersey in Bank of America Stadium.

“We feel the support, whether it be at home or away,” said veteran receiver Adam Thielen, long seen as the lone bright spot on an offense that is navigating some dark times. “And we love our fans, especially the ones who are sticking with us through some tough times.

“We obviously are not happy with where we’re at, but we’re putting in the work and gaining ground even though the results are coming. Keep sticking with us, and I think you’ll be surprised with what happens.”