With Sam Mills in, the Panthers now have one of their own in Canton

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — As long as they’ve existed, the Carolina Panthers have been Hall of Fame-adjacent.

Thursday night, all that changed.

The Panthers, and by extension their fans, have a Pro Football Hall of Famer now. One of their own.

That sounds different, and feels different, as it should. It offers a sense of belonging for the 1995 expansion franchise, because someone inextricably linked to the team has finally made it. Not someone who was just passing through, but someone who was of the Carolinas, if not from the Carolinas. Someone who dug in, who endured, who belonged, and whose legacy lives on back home every day.

One of ours, the best of ours, will now have a bust among the game’s immortals.

With the election of the late Sam Mills, the Panthers are finally fully represented in Canton, because what Sam Mills represented is so central to what’s happened in Panthers franchise history.

Now, the people of the Carolinas may have to share in the celebration with Saints fans, because Mills played his first nine NFL seasons in New Orleans. But after playing three years here, and coaching six, his career reached a delicate balance. And frankly, there’s enough about Mills’ legacy that gives each side plenty to celebrate.

But it’s easy for Panthers fans to feel territorial about Mills, because it feels like he’s been here forever. And in his own way, he has.

Mills left an imprint on this fanbase, and this community. When he died in 2005 after his battle with cancer, they had a pair of memorial services for him, one in his native New Jersey, and one back in Charlotte. At that one, friends remembered him and cried, and then everyone ate chicken in the church basement and laughed afterward because he left explicit instructions to make sure people broke bread.

He had that kind of gift for bringing people together.

Earlier this week, former teammate Brett Maxie — who played with him and coached with him — admitted he didn’t know what kind of emotions he’d feel Thursday night.

“I think about Sam every day,” said Maxie, who played alongside Mills in New Orleans and on the first two Panthers teams. “I know he’s looking down on me, and I hope he’s proud.”

Maxie spoke at Mills’ Charlotte memorial at University Park Baptist Church, and pointed out that day he was immediately skeptical about his friends’ brief post-playing career foray into the insurance business.

“I told Sam, ‘Yeah, you do look like somebody in insurance, with your little glasses, and your shirt collar sticking out of that sweater,'” Maxie recalled with a laugh. “That didn’t last long.”

On the back of the mass card from that service, there’s a passage of scripture that’s common to many Christian believers during times of struggle (Philippians 4:4-13). In part, it reads: “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praise-worthy — think about such things.”

That’s why the people close to Sam Mills get choked up. He was all those things.