It's easy to forget in the middle of a seven-year losing streak, but the Carolina Panthers have reached the pinnacle of their profession twice in franchise history. Their first trip to the Super Bowl came in 2003, when they were just-barely beaten by Tom Brady and the New England Patriots thanks to Adam Vinatieri's field goal with just nine seconds left to play.
Their next Super Bowl matchup came 12 years later, when Cam Newton, Luke Kuechly and company met up with Peyton Manning and a mean Denver Broncos defense in Super Bowl 50. It didn't go quite as well for them this time around, and they lost soundly by two touchdowns.
Coming out of that game a great deal of criticism was heaped on Newton for what was perceived as a poor peformance. Cam completed just 18 of 41 passes and finished with zero touchdowns and one interception. That Manning played significantly worse - posting just 141 passing yards and an 8.6 QBR - was completely forgotten in the midst of all the history being made.
Newton became the media's favorite scapegoat for a while, particularly as it pertained to one play when Cam seemingly second-guessed a chance to dive for a fumble - at least according to one less-than-ideal camera angle.
Despite what your favorite pundit might have said at the time, the Panthers didn't see it as an issue, at all. That's what Kuechly said anyway in a recent appearance on the Bussin' with the Boys podcast. Here's what he said when he was asked if any of his teammates ever questioned why Newton didn't jump on the fumble.
"Honestly, no. His toughness, we never questioned it. The guy never complained. He was the first guy in every day. He worked so hard. He never yelled at guys. He never threw guys under the bus. Talk about a dude that all he wants to do is play football. It was just a bad game for us."
That it was, and while it would have been a better look to make a desperate dive for the ball, it never looked like Newton had a realistic chance of actually recovering the fumble in the first place.
Unfortunately that was the peak for the Panthers in the modern era. Two years later they had another strong group but thanks to a near-total lack of talent at wide receiver they lost a playoff game to the Saints that they should have won.
Since then it's been pretty much all losing for these Panthers, but the recent second-half surge by Bryce Young has inspired some legitimate hope that the streak could come to an end soon.
