By: JJ Lanier

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

It’s hard to believe a quarter century has passed since the Carolina Panthers in Jacksonville Jaguars played their first NFL games.

I remember watching Carolina play Tampa Bay at Clemson with my grandfather and father because the stadium in Charlotte wasn’t completed yet.

I also remember all the arguments and debates going on about how you actually pronounce Jaguars; was it “Jag-wires” or “Jag-u-wars”? Speaking of which, how nice would it be if the biggest issue in sports today revolved around the pronunciation of a team’s nickname?

Even though I was only fifteen during their inaugural season and was more interested in playing sports than watching them, the one thing that always sticks out in my mind was how neither team really felt like your typical expansion team.

For instance, take a look at Jacksonville’s first five seasons; after struggling a bit their first year in the league (4-12) they made the playoffs four straight years.

Two of those years, 1996 and 1999, culminated in an appearance in the AFC Championship game.

There aren’t too many teams that can claim to make it to their conference championship game in only their second year in existence (hold onto that thought for just a minute).

As for the ‘99 season, a little bit of bar trivia for if/when we ever get to do those types of things again- Jacksonville only lost three games that entire season, all to the Tennessee Titans.

It’s almost as if that year’s Titans team was to Jacksonville like Alabama has been to Georgia recently. (Cheap shot towards Georgia fans? Yes. Unnecessary cheap shot towards Georgia fans? Absolutely.)

As for the Panthers, well, you probably remember or have at least figured out they too made the playoffs, as well as the NFC Championship game in their second season.

After a very respectable 7-9 record their first year, they won their division (the NFC West, which consisted of more teams east of the Mississippi River than west) with a 12-4 record and of course, the conference championship game, as I mentioned.

The Panthers success wasn’t as consistent during those first few years as the Jaguars- they didn’t experience another winning season until 2002- but they have had the advantage over the last decade and a half, and overall.

Since the ‘95 season, Carolina has had more wins (204-183), playoff appearances (8-7) and Super Bowl appearances (2-0), than Jacksonville.

I’m going to stop any more comparisons between the teams because that really wasn’t my intention when I started writing this.

Rather, I wanted to talk about, and give credit to, what both teams were able to achieve at the start.

Like basically all expansion teams, both rosters were full of players other teams didn’t want and rookies, being coached in this case by two first time head coaches- Tom Coughlin and Dom Capers.

It showed that with the right coaching and atmosphere players can perform at levels other teams didn’t recognize or just overlooked.

In a strange way it also helped contribute to today’s way of thinking, where if a coach can’t win within the first year or two, he’s gone.

I mean, if two expansion teams can make a conference championship in both of their second seasons, anyone should be able to, right?

Neither team may have had the overall success they were looking for 25 years ago, but they’ve exceeded most expectations, no matter where they called home, or how you pronounced their name.