The morning of Sunday, November 24, 2024, I woke up at about 5:30 to get ready for my flight to Charlotte for my first football game at Bank of America Stadium. I’ve been a Panthers fan since the inception of the team in 1995. After 30 years of the team being around it was about time that I saw a game at their stadium and this game against the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs team seemed like a good time to go. After getting to the airport I found some food to eat while walking around to get some steps in. The flight was nonstop to Charlotte with American Airlines, which was nice.
After landing at the Charlotte airport, I had some time to wander around before I needed to head to the football stadium. So, I walked around most of the airport and its’ various terminals and saw a few neat and interesting things along the way.
When I decided to leave the airport finally I found a taxi and took it to as close to the football stadium as possible. I then wandered around, walking around the stadium to see what was on the outside.
I waited in line to enter the stadium for about 20 minutes or so then was able to explore the grounds and the stadium.
The Panther statues at the entrance were quite the nice touch to entering the stadium. I wanted to get a new Panthers hat so I went to the stadium store and found one. Then it was time to explore the stadium more and, eventually, find some food.
The views from the ground level were quite nice. I especially liked how the downtown skyscrapers of Charlotte are visible from inside the stadium. It was probably the best view I’ve had from inside of a football stadium so far. Then I took the escalators to the top and explored some more.
Lunch was a Pizza Grilled Cheese. What can I say, I really like pizza and I really like grilled cheeses, so to put them together seemed like a good idea. It was tasty.
Here is the view from my seat.
Now for some pre-game activity pictures.
A parachute team was dropped into the stadium.
Now it was finally time for the game. Prior to the game the win/loss record of the Chiefs was 9-1 while the Panthers were 3-7. The opening kickoff was taken by Kansas City’s Samaje Perine for an extremely long 56-yard return as shown below.
Three plays later Noah Grey scored on a pass from quarterback Patrick Mahomes and, just like that, the Chiefs were up 7-0.
Not to be completely outdone, Bryce Young, the Panthers quarterback, led the team down the field for an early field goal on their first drive. The score was 7-3 Chiefs after just over five minutes of play.
The Chiefs then quickly scored a field goal of their own to put the score at 10-3 with a few minutes left in the first quarter.
Shortly after the second quarter began, the Panthers replied with yet another field goal attempt of their own.
After the second field goal from Panthers kicker Eddie Pineiro the score was now 10-6.
This next video shows just how many Chiefs fans were in the stands. It seemed like at least half of the crowd was wearing red, which is definitely an oddity for seemingly half the crowd to be the away teams fans.
The Chiefs next drive was a long one, 14 plays, and had some nice throws to tight end Travis Kelce along with some plays featuring rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy.
The Chiefs temporary kicker, Spencer Shrader (Harrison Butker was injured) would make the game 13-6 halfway through the second quarter.
The Panthers next drive ended quickly with a punt. Then the Chiefs went down the field again on another 14-play drive that ended in yet another Noah Grey touchdown.
Fortunately, even with little time left in the half, Bryce Young was able to lead the Panthers down the field with some nice passes to wide receiver David Moore and rookie tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders (who was unfortunately injured on the drive). Another Eddie Piniero field goal left the score at halftime 20-9 with the Chiefs leading.
The halftime entertainment was a band made up of current members of the Air Force. They were pretty good.
The Panthers had the ball coming out of halftime. They were able to put together an extremely long drive, over eight minutes long. Chubba Hubbard, the Panthers starting running back, finally got going with some good runs. There were some pass plays thrown in there to David Moore and rookie wide receiver Xavier Legette as well. The drive ended with a David Moore receiving touchdown. The Panthers tried to go for a two-point conversion but were ultimately unsuccessful. Here are some highlights from the long drive.
The Chiefs next drive would end in yet another touchdown after a 75-yard drive that went by pretty quickly. Their new acquisition, DeAndre Hopkins, would end up with the receiving touchdown from Patrick Mahomes, his third touchdown toss of the game.
And with that, it was now 27-16. After another Panthers field goal and three punts, including the first two by the Chiefs after the Panthers defense finally got pressure on Mahomes with some sacks (most notably by Jadeveon Clowney and Jaycee Horn) the game was 27-19 with the Panthers driving.
The Panthers knew they had to tie up the game to have a chance at winning, so they moved as quickly as they could. After a good pass to Adam Thielen for a first down, the Panthers went for it all with an attempt at a touchdown pass but the receiver did not catch the ball. There was, however, a pass interference penalty called against the Chiefs. I was able to get that play on video.
One play later, running back Chubba Hubbard ran the ball in for a touchdown. He was able to convert the two-point version as well, what some people like to call The Octopus since one player scored eight points, and the game was tied at 27-all.
But, as usual, since Patrick Mahomes had over a minute and a half, and the Chiefs still had all of their time outs, he was able to lead them on a drive that was capped off by a game winning field goal with two seconds left in the game.
This game was definitely one of the better NFL football games that I have been to. There was scoring on almost every drive. Patrick Mahomes delivered once again and played like the MVP that he has been. Bryce Young is steadily looking better with the new head coach and coaching staff, much better than he did last year during his rookie year. The receiving corps for the Panthers is coming along nicely as well. I was completely OK with the Panthers losing the game since it was such a good game for them.
The stadium, for being finished in 1995, was fairly nice as well. There were new signs and frontage for all of the many little eateries and beverage kiosks. There were some small tables setup occasionally around the walk path too. The stadium seats looked like they were probably original to the stadium since the numbers on them were quite faded. They could probably do with a seating upgrade.
Anyway, after the game I had to find a Lyft driver and get back to the airport. After getting some snacks for the plane ride I had about 10 minutes to spare before they started boarding the plane. All-in-all, for a one-day trip to Charlotte for a football game it wasn’t that bad of a way of getting around and was still a fun little day trip, even though it was just me going all alone. I might have to do it again sometime.
Hollar if you see Us 