CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For the third year in a row, the NFL is naming a Fan of the Year.
All 32 teams selected their nominee for the award earlier this season and now they’ll meet in Phoenix, Arizona for the ultimate fan experience, from attending the NFL Honors to Super Bowl LVII and one lucky fan will earn all the bragging rights for their franchise as the league’s FOTY.
Sheree Pintea is the Carolina Panthers 2022 Fan of the Year, a much-deserved recognition that has been in the making since the team’s inaugural season.
“The next thing I know, they surrounded me and Sir Purr opens the jersey and I saw this (Fan of the Year Patch) and I just lost it," she said. "I'm not a crier, but I was so shocked and so surprised and so honored that I won that I just started crying, and everybody was crying with me. So, it was an amazing moment. It really was."
Pintea and her husband Jeff have been a part of Panthers Nation since the very beginning. In fact, they were so determined to become permanent seat license (PSL) owners when the Carolinas were awarded franchise rights in 1993, they took on extra jobs to have the money to do so.
“That was a long time ago and money was tighter then, and so he got a second job, a part-time job, and I worked as much overtime as I could," she said. "We managed to save up the money, and then the day came to send the check in with our ticket preference. Jeff actually drove down to the main post office because he was scared it would get lost in the mail."
Since then, Sheree has only missed one game, but her love for the Panthers has extra meaning following Sam Mills' “Keep Pounding” speech from 2004, which later became the team’s mantra.
“My mom died from cancer. So, it's close to my heart. I wear it right here, every day," she said. "When they started that I couldn't believe it. It just matched so closely."
Now, Pintea uses her love of the game to give support to others who are facing their own battles. Her support ranges from 50/50 raffles at tailgates, sponsoring a tailgate at a local VFW post when the Panthers are on the road for Carolina veterans, visiting an assisted living home and playing Panthers trivia with residents, and much more.
“It's just a bigger opportunity to give more of your time or your money or your efforts. It's just, that's everything. I mean, that's all you think about, football is wonderful, but it just gives me a bigger platform to give back to the community,” Pintea explained.
For the Pinteas, their one-time dream of becoming PSL owners has now blessed them with a group of people with a similar passion for the Panthers that has become a second family.
You can cast your vote for Sheree to win NFL Fan of the Year here.
Contact Ashley Stroehlein at astro@wcnc.com and follow her on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.