The Carolina Panthers opened the Sam Darnold era at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte against his former New York Jets squad Sunday afternoon.
Ahead of the start of the game, the team introduced its new “mixed reality” panther, which reminded us of both Back to the Future and the League of Legends Worlds 2017 opening ceremony. It was among the craziest things we’ve seen around the NFL in some time.
At first, this looked to be a real panther out there before we all realized it wasn’t. When the animated creature took to the top of the Bank of America sign and ate the Jets flag, it became all that much more epic.
For their part, the Carolina Panthers opened up a 16-0 halftime lead against New York with Darnold completing 17-of-22 passes for 234 yards.