Dear Carolina Panthers fans: Get ready for a Super Bowl season.
That is the message from Panthers center Ryan Kalil, who took out a full-page ad in Wednesday’s Observer to promise fans their “unwavering support” would be rewarded this year.
How?
With what he calls “One hundred-percent, sterling silver victory. The Lombardi Trophy.”
Kalil, a three-time Pro Bowl participant, shared the 178-word open letter with an Observer reporter before buying the ad, which he called “a war cry to the fans.” In it, he predicts this Panthers season will end in New Orleans, with the first Super Bowl title in the franchise’s 18-year history.
Kalil did not tell anyone with the team about the ad, because he didn’t want to be talked out of doing it.
“Every team says it every year, whether it’s publicly or not,” Kalil said. “They say they’re going to win the Super Bowl.
“We’ve said it in the past in meeting rooms and behind closed doors. This year’s different. There’s a sense of urgency, a winning attitude that I haven’t seen before. And it’s in the way we prepare. It’s in the way we approach each work day, and I think fans will see it in the way that we play.”
The Panthers went 6-10 last year in Ron Rivera’s first year as coach. But with quarterback Cam Newton, the NFL Rookie of the Year in 2011, spearheading an offensive resurgence and several defensive starters expected to return from injury, some prognosticators are picking the Panthers to contend for a playoff berth.
Kalil took it a step further, writing that the Panthers would win the Super Bowl.
Kalil, a second-round pick from Southern California in 2007, was back in California last month when the muse struck.
“It was one of those things I was literally up all night and I was thinking about it, and just went to my computer and started writing,” he said.
Kalil, who is active on Twitter, liked the idea of sharing his thoughts in a format “that wasn’t paraphrased or restricted to 140 characters.”
“For eighteen years we’ve wanted, hoped and tried,” Kalil writes in the letter. “But no more. A moment is upon us, where dreams become beliefs and yearning becomes conviction.”
Joe Namath would be proud. Namath, the brash New York Jets quarterback, guaranteed a victory three days before Super Bowl III – a 16-7 Jets’ victory over Baltimore.
“It’s a bold statement to make,” Kalil said.
Vince Young, then a backup quarterback in Philadelphia, infamously labeled the Eagles a “Dream Team” last summer. The Eagles finished 8-8.
Even Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, speaking at a street party celebrating the awarding of the franchise, promised a Super Bowl within 10 years.
With the team set to report to training camp in Spartanburg on Friday, Kalil believes the Panthers are on the verge of a special season.
“There’s something different going on with the Panthers. There’s a different attitude, a sense of urgency, a different mindset that I haven’t seen since I’ve been here,” Kalil said. “And the sentiment is widespread. It’s not just in the players or the coaches. But the entire organization.”
