The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The team is headquartered in Bank of America Stadium in Uptown Charlotte; the stadium also serves as the team’s home field. Although the team has played its home games in Charlotte since 1996, they played their home games at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina during its first season in 1995. The Panthers were announced as the league’s 29th franchise in 1993 and began playing in 1995. The Carolina Panthers played well in their first two years, finishing 7–9 in 1995 and 12–4 the following year, winning the NFC West before ultimately losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship Game. They did not have another winning season until 2003 when they won the NFC Championship Game and reached Super Bowl XXXVIII, losing to the New England Patriots. After recording playoff appearances in 2005 and 2008, the team failed to record another playoff appearance until 2013. Panthers returned to the Super Bowl in 2016 but lost to the Denver Broncos. Since then, the Carolina Panthers have appeared in the playoffs only once, in 2017. The team’s five NFC South titles since the division’s establishment in 2002 rank second only to the New Orleans Saints.