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Published: Saturday, Jan. 12, 2013 / Updated: Saturday, Jan. 12, 2013 05:17 PM

The Curse of 7-9

In the Carolina Panthers’ 18 years of existence, their most common record is the one they just finished the 2012 season with – 7-9.

Nothing else is close. The Panthers have finished 7-9 seven times, more than twice as many times as their next most common record. If you are a Panthers fan, you have had way too much firsthand experience with “The Curse of 7-9” – not good enough for the playoffs, too good for a top-5 pick in the next draft.

So what does 7-9 feel like? You know as well as I do and maybe better, which is why this is the first crowdsourced column I’ve ever written. I asked readers on my “Scott Says” blog at CharlotteObserver.com and also on my Twitter account (@Scott_Fowler) to fill in the blank in this sentence:

“Every time the Panthers go 7-9, it feels like ____.”

What you wrote was funnier than anything I could come up with. So for the rest of this column, I will intersperse reader responses in italics to the “7-9 feels like” question in between my own thoughts about the Panthers and “The Curse of 7-9.”

7-9 feels like …

… you were promised a trip to Athens and Rome and ended up in north Georgia.

… watching an insect continually fly into a closed glass door.

… Jennifer Aniston is off the market again. I know I didn’t realistically have a chance, but it still sucks.

Way back in 1998, Panthers owner Jerry Richardson started telling some of those close to him that he couldn’t “deal with” a 7-9 record. At that point, the Panthers had gone 7-9 in two of their first three seasons.

The first time, in 1995, was the best 7-9 record the Panthers had ever had. They were an expansion team, one not expected to win more than three or four games. They started 0-5. So that was the rare 7-9 that felt wonderful.

7-9 feels like …

… making it all the way home just to find out they forgot to put your fries in the bag.

… that time at the bar when that smokin’ hot girl locked eyes with you and smiled, but only because you had a peanut stuck to your cheek.

… that boy who loosens his arm will soon be signed.

The second Panther 7-9, in 1997, was a monumental disappointment that came after Carolina’s surprising trip to the NFC championship game in 1996. That season gave Panthers fans the first real taste of “The Curse of 7-9.” The typical 7-9 season is viewed as a season of “almosts,” where players and fans could look back and pick out two or three winnable games that instead were lost but which could have changed everything.

Alternately, losing a few more of those games could have netted a great draft pick – the Panthers got Cam Newton after a 2-14 season and Julius Peppers after a 1-15 one.

7-9 feels like …

… it must be time for the annual Jerry Richardson Celebrity Golf Cart Classic.

… trying to get excited about prom night when you are home-schooled.

…my PSL stands for Panthers Stink, Lose.

… the terrorists are winning.

The Panthers have had four head coaches in their 18-year history. All four are now members of the 7-9 club. Ron Rivera and George Seifert did it once each. Dom Capers did it twice. John Fox was the king of 7-9. He did it three times.

7-9 feels like …

… a ticket price increase is coming.

… winning 100 percent of the time 43 percent of the time.

… Cam Newton just called me sweetheart.

Panthers fans, who bless their hearts are a generally optimistic lot, like to believe that 7-9 foreshadows better things. Often, they are right. The Panthers went 7-9 the year before they made the Super Bowl. They also went 7-9 before each of their other three playoff appearances.

For Fox in particular, 7-9 was a business card slipped under a door the Panthers were about to kick down. All three of his playoff appearances in nine seasons at Carolina came following 7-9 seasons.

7-9 feels like …

… my Kerry Collins jersey fits a little tighter.

… the numbing mediocrity of taking a lukewarm bath at an two-star airport hotel on the last night of a semi-fun, semi-miserable family vacation.

… rain when they were predicting snow.

But a 7-9 record also can serve as the first glance into the mouth of the beast that is about to swallow you up. New Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman and the unnamed new offensive coordinator need to realize that, too. The Panthers went 7-9 the year before Capers got fired. They went 7-9 the year before Seifert got fired.

7-9 feels like …

… DeAngelo Williams’ acting career – dreadful.

… someone is owed a beating with the “Keep Pounding” hammer.

… a family reunion of hope and despair.

… we have to help the sportswriters come up with something to fill their columns.

I would imagine that Rivera will go to one extreme or the other after this year. He will either make the playoffs after his 7-9 season like Fox always did, or he will get fired one year after a 7-9 season like Capers and Seifert did.

I lean toward the former. Even with the changes at GM and offensive coordinator, I think the Panthers will be good next season and will probably make the playoffs. That’s part of the reason I thought Rivera should be granted 2013 to coach them one more time.

But one way or another, Rivera must deal with “The Curse of 7-9” in 2013. He’s either going to beat it – or it’s going to swallow him up.

Editor’s note: There were about 200 entries in this contest. If one of yours was published in this column, congratulations. Email Scott at sfowler@charlotteobserver.com and tell him which entry was yours to claim your prize of a Panther-themed book. He has contact information for most of the winners already but is unclear on a few folks who didn’t identify themselves.