Carolina Panthers
The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are currently members of the South Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (nfl). The Panthers, along with the Jacksonville Jaguars, joined the nfl as expansion teams in 1995. In their existence, the Panthers have compiled a record of 125–141, and appeared in Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston, Texas.
The Panthers logo consists of the head of a black snarling panther outlined in blue. It is shaped to resemble the combined borders of North and South Carolina.[5] The helmets are silver, and in 2003, they changed the helmet color slightly to a more metallic shade.[6] The team normally wears silver pants with their black Jerseys, and white pants with their white Jerseys. Both the black and the white Jerseys have blue stripes over the shoulders. The team introduced an alternate Jersey in 2002 that is blue with black shoulder stripes. Carolina debuted the alternate light blue Jersey for one game at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002. The alternate Jersey has been worn twice a season beginning in 2003. The Panthers have worn the light blue Jersey a few times on the road when the home team has chosen to wear white due to the heat, as the light blue uniforms are more comfortable in the heat than black. Carolina prefers to not wear black when the temperature is hot or not mild enough. With the league rules permitting teams to wear their third Jersey twice in the regular season and once in the preseason, the Panthers reserve the use of their alternate light blue Jersey for a home game when there is one or two games that they don't wear them on the road.
Like many other nfl teams located in temperate climates, the Panthers traditionally wear their white Jerseys at home during the first half of the season — forcing opponents to wear their dark ones under the warm autumns in Charlotte. When it gets to the second half of the season the Panthers will start to wear their colored Jerseys for home games as temperatures will be more mild.
The team's uniforms prompted a 2003 lawsuit by the Oakland Raiders, who claimed that the nfl and the Panthers had infringed upon key trademark elements of the Raiders' brand, specifically the silver and black colors. In the same suit, the Raiders challenged the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1997 uniform design, including the pirate logo. The Raiders wanted the courts to bar the Buccaneers and Panthers from wearing their uniforms while playing in California. However, since the lawsuit was filed in a state California court, the lawsuit was tossed out because only federal courts have jurisdiction over intellectual property issues.[7] The Raiders have yet to appeal the ruling.
The Panthers have played in ten postseason games, wearing the white Jerseys in all but their most recent playoff game. Two of those games were at home against the Dallas Cowboys, making the Cowboys wear their "unlucky" road navy-blue Jerseys, as the Cowboys are one of three teams who routinely wear their white uniforms at home.
