‘SUPER MEN’: New documentary takes Carolina Panthers fans deep inside 2015
The 2015 Carolina Panthers were more than just a football team.
They were a dabbing, dancing, swaggering, chest-thumping, scoreboard-breaking force that captured the Queen City’s heart despite falling just short of the NFL’s ultimate prize.
On Thursday night, a decade after their magical season, several key members of that beloved team reunited for the premiere of The Charlotte Observer’s new hour-long documentary film, “SUPER MEN: The inside story of the 2015 Carolina Panthers,” at Independent Picture House on the edge of Charlotte’s NoDa neighborhood.
Following two sold-out shows, an all-star lineup of 2015 Panthers — including head coach Ron Rivera, linebacker Luke Kuechly, cornerback Josh Norman and long snapper J.J. Jansen — took the stage. They swapped reflections, ribbed one another and answered audience questions.
Rivera’s daughter Courtney, the team’s social media coordinator in 2015, also sat on the talk-back panel after the premiere. Additional VIPs in the audience of roughly 250 guests included Mike Tolbert, a Pro Bowl fullback that season; Jerricho Cotchery, a key wide receiver on that team; then-team president Danny Morrison; and Pat McCrory, who was governor of North Carolina when the Panthers went 17-2 and won the NFC Championship in 2015.
The hour-long Charlotte Observer documentary will be free and available to all starting at 7 p.m. Friday night on The Charlotte Observer’s YouTube page.
Due to the event’s success, Independent Picture House plans to add more showtimes for “SUPER MEN,” to be announced in the coming weeks. The Observer will publish the Q&A session with the Riveras, Kuechly, Norman and Jansen online in the near future.
All proceeds from Thursday night’s event benefit Veterans Bridge Home, a Charlotte-based nonprofit organization chosen and supported by Rivera, who also did a meet-and-greet with Observer subscribers Thursday night and remains the winningest coach in franchise history.
On the panel, Kuechly showed the mischievous streak he often kept hidden during his playing career, teasing Norman about losing his training-camp fight against Newton in 2015 and calling Jansen out for a “humble brag” when Jansen recalled a perfect field-goal snap he once made in a rainstorm.
“Y’all don’t know — Luke really is one of the biggest antagonists of all,” Rivera said with a laugh during the question-and-answer session. “One of the all-time great things he did was during Halloween one year, when he dressed up like Cam (Panthers quarterback Cam Newton). He put on the really tight tights, put on the hoodie, draped it over the top and walked around like that. Everybody was going, ‘OK, we get it.’
“If anybody could jab at (Cam), other than Josh, it was Luke. And that’s the thing we’re emphasizing in the movie: Just how much these guys came together. Just how much they took care of each other. It’s a coach’s dream.”
Led by Newton’s MVP season, a ferocious defense, a roster with 10 Pro Bowlers and Rivera’s steady leadership, Carolina tore through the regular season with a franchise-record 15 wins before advancing to Super Bowl 50.
This month, The Observer has been sharing the real story of that unforgettable ride — from the inside.
The four-part online series — available now at charlotteobserver.com — is a companion piece to the new documentary. With in-depth accounts from players, videos and photos from the locker room and sidelines by visual journalist Jeff Siner and untold stories even the most dedicated Panthers fans haven’t heard, the series adds layers of color and context to a season that electrified the Carolinas.
“It was Théoden (Janes)‘s idea to begin with,” said longtime Observer sports columnist Scott Fowler, who co-wrote the documentary with Janes. “That was his mission: ‘Let’s find out a bunch of stuff from this season that people don’t know about — that they think they know about.’ That was one of our main goals.”
In the film, many 2015 Panthers — including those in attendance Thursday at Independent Picture House as well as running back Jonathan Stewart, linebacker Thomas Davis, center Ryan Kalil, safety Kurt Coleman, general manager Dave Gettleman and more — shared personal reflections from the year that brought Charlotte to life and came one win shy of NFL immortality.
As for Kuechly? He’s still right at home in the football world.
When asked by a fan Thursday night if he was going to be a “DC,” as in a defensive coordinator for an NFL or college team, Kuechly laughed and said: “I’m actually a current defensive coordinator at Charlotte Christian (for middle school football). We’ve got (Charlotte) Latin in our last game of the year if you’re interested in that. On Aug. 27, we have our first game of the year if you’d like to come that — or you can be at practice next week.”
This story was originally published July 25, 2025 at 10:41 AM with the headline "‘SUPER MEN’: New documentary takes Carolina Panthers fans deep inside 2015."
