CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- It was a cold, overcast Friday in January 2004 when coach John Fox gathered the Carolina Panthers
on the far practice field near Bank of America Stadium. In 24 hours,
the team would begin its fairy-tale run to Super Bowl XXXVIII with a
wild-card playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys.
Sam Mills wanted to speak.
So players went to one knee and gathered tightly around their linebackers coach, with the skyline of Charlotte as his backdrop.
Mills
began sharing his story of how a 5-foot-9 middle linebacker that no NFL
team wanted coming out of Montclair State went on to become a five-time
Pro Bowl player after a three-year stint in the United States Football
League.
He spoke of how doctors diagnosed him with intestinal
cancer hours before he showed up to coach the linebackers in the 2003
preseason finale and that he was given only three months to live.
He
told the Panthers that they became his inspiration to fight the tough
days of chemotherapy treatments when, on Sept. 14 of that season, they
blocked an extra point on the final play of regulation to send a sure
loss against Tampa Bay into overtime, where they won.
He told them, in his powerful but soft-spoken voice, to keep pounding.
"When
I found out I had cancer, there were two things I could do: quit or
keep pounding," Mills said that day. "I'm a fighter. I kept pounding.
You're fighters, too. Keep pounding!"
Mills died on April 18, 2005, at age 45. His legacy lives on as the Panthers prepare to face the Denver Broncos on Feb. 7 in Super Bowl 50.
None
of the current Carolina players knew Mills, but they are reminded of
his message each day when they walk into the weight room and see the
"Keep Pounding" tribute.
They are reminded of it before every home game when somebody bangs the "Keep Pounding" drum on the edge of the field.
They
are reminded of it by the statue of Mills, the only player in team
history honored this way, outside Bank of America Stadium.
They are reminded of it when they put on their uniform and see "Keep Pounding" inscribed on the inside collar.
"A
young man stricken early in his life with a terrible disease, and still
to be able to look at it and tell people you've got to keep fighting,"
Panthers coach Ron Rivera said last week. "Our guys are learning and
understand what it truly does mean beyond a football game."
Quarterback
Jake Delhomme was feeling down as he made the short walk from the
stadium to the practice field. The Panthers were in the midst of a
three-game losing streak after an 8-2 start to the 2003 season. Delhomme
was tired and sore from the beating he had taken three days earlier.
Then he felt a breeze as somebody ran past.
He heard, "All right, big Jake!" in a familiar voice.
"Sam
was going out there to do his hundred-yard sprints before practice,"
Delhomme recalled. "I was, 'Here I am walking, feeling sorry for myself
because we lost a couple in a row, body feeling a little sore, and I
just got passed by a guy who is dying of cancer.'
"It was an 'aha'
moment for me. Like, 'You need to grow up and be a big boy.' He was an
example. I wanted to be a tenth like Sam."
That's the story
Delhomme tells when he thinks of Mills. The "keep pounding" speech had
an impact, but Mills' actions were more powerful.
One of the
original Panthers in 1995, coming as a free agent from New Orleans,
Mills quickly became the standard to which team owner Jerry Richardson
held everyone.
Mills was a gentleman and a warrior. He also made big plays. None was more memorable than his 1995 interception of a New York Jets shovel pass that he returned for a touchdown, sparking the Panthers to their first win after an 0-5 start.
"His
actions spoke so loudly about how he addressed being a player, how he
addressed being a personnel guy and being a coach," former Carolina
general manager Marty Hurney said. "His personality is one that just
commanded respect. At the same time, he could make you laugh. He made me
laugh more than anyone I knew."
On that cold day in January 2004, Mills made grown men cry.
"It
was an emotional day," said Mills' son, Sam Mills III, currently an
assistant defensive line coach with the Panthers, who was on the field
that day. "He just wanted to share his journey with the team, share his
thoughts.
"He was a very passionate guy on the field. That was his way, along with coaching, to contribute to the team."
Those
who were present for Mills' talk still get chills thinking about it.
They equate it to the "Never give up" speech by former North Carolina
State basketball coach Jim Valvano at the 1993 ESPYs.
"It was
unbelievable," said Ricky Proehl, who played for the Panthers from 2003
to 2005 and is now their wide receivers coach. "The hair on the back of
your neck stood up."
"It was straight from the heart," former offensive lineman Kevin Donnalley recalled.
Jordan Gross, a rookie tackle that season, said it was delivered matter-of-factly, yet powerfully.
"The
delivery was almost like an assignment, like, 'When things are bad,
keep pounding. When it seems all hope is lost, keep pounding,'" Gross
said. "It was more like a message delivered than a command."
The
Panthers beat the Cowboys 29-10 the next day. The next week they
survived a 29-23 double-overtime thriller in St. Louis that ended with
Steve Smith catching a 69-yard, walk-off touchdown pass. The next week
they beat Philadelphia 14-3 in the NFC Championship Game.
Then
came the Super Bowl. On the Thursday before the game, after another
round of chemotherapy, Mills flew to Houston to be with the team.
At
a news conference with linebacker Mark Fields, who was diagnosed with
Hodgkin's disease in training camp, Mills was noticeably weak. Sweating
as he held on to the podium, he smiled and said, "You have your good
days and your bad days. I'm just glad I am having days, you know?"
Carolina's
run finally ended in the Super Bowl when New England kicked a
last-second field goal to win 32-29. But Mills' message didn't end.
If
anything, it has grown stronger since Rivera became the coach in 2011.
He revitalized the use of the "Keep Pounding" drum to the point it has
become an event. Among those to bang the drum: NBA MVP Stephen Curry;
Braylon Beam, a 6-year-old whose fight against cancer has earned
national attention; former players such as Delhomme; and current
players, including as outside linebacker Thomas Davis.
It
never was a bigger symbol than it was last weekend, before the NFC
Championship Game against Arizona. Richardson, who had a heart
transplant in 2009, swung the oversize drumstick like he was 29 instead
of 79.
"I was up in the coaches' booth tearing up, me and a bunch of other guys up there," Mills III said. "It was very emotional."
Backup linebacker A.J. Klein
has the locker that Mills used as a player, in the far corner of the
locker room. He didn't know what "keep pounding" really meant until head
trainer Ryan Vermillion shared Mills' story last year.
"He gave
the whole story, how Sam poured out his heart, how much the
organization, football meant to him," Klein recalled. "Right then and
there I finally understood what it meant to keep pounding. I wish I
could have met him."
Davis
epitomizes Mills' message. In 2012, he became the first player in NFL
history to successfully return from three ACL surgeries on the same
knee. He's preparing to play in the Super Bowl two weeks after suffering
a broken forearm in the NFC title game.
"I'll live the rest of my life by that mantra," Davis said.
Quarterback Cam Newton calls "keep pounding" a way of life.
"It's
not necessarily two words that hang inside our jerseys, that you often
see walking around this organization," he said. "It's a resilient
attitude that we'll refuse to settle."
Mills never settled. He fought to the very end.
And on a cold day in January 2004, he shared a message that resonates today.
"That's
where it all started," Proehl said. "Just keep pounding. Don't quit. No
matter what the situation is, no matter what the odds are, just keep
pounding."
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