Carolina Panthers: Charles Johnson retires a franchise legend

Longtime Carolina Panthers defensive end Charles Johnson has called it a career after 11 seasons in the NFL.

There’s a saying which is more accurate than many would like: “Father Time is undefeated.” Professional athletes recognize the fact when they are forced to retire from the sport that they love. Nearly every year there are players that walk away from competition. Some find ways to still contribute, while others struggle to find ways to fill the void. A legendary Carolina Panthers defensive end announced his retirement on Wednesday as Charles Johnson has officially declared that his professional football career has come to an end.

Johnson was a longtime member of the Panthers defensive line that struck fear in the hearts of opposing offensive lines. He joined the NFL in 2007 when he was drafted in the third round out of Georgia. For the next 11 seasons he would be a prominent member of the Panthers defensive line.

At the time of his retirement, Johnson’s career comes to an end with a stat line that includes: 321 combined tackles, 67.5 sacks, 19 forced fumbles and four recoveries. His number of sacks places him behind only Julius Peppers as second all-time for the Charlotte-based organization.

“Great team player, good person and leader,” head coach Ron Rivera said about Johnson, as reported by David Newton of ESPN.

Johnson remained a consistent part of this Panthers defense. While other players struggled with multiple injuries, Johnson was able to maintain his relevance by remaining healthy for large portions of his career. In 2015 he missed seven games, which was the most amount of time he would miss in a single season. Johnson was a sack machine for the Panthers.

There were three seasons in which he earned double-digit sacks and from 2010 through 2013 he would get 44 of those. In 2017 Johnson would end the year without a sack, which would be one of the only times that would occur in his career; the other being his rookie season in 2007.

Carolina moved to release Johnson in February after the veteran was suspended in four games in December for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs. Even though Johnson had a number of big years, he was willing to restructure his contract with Carolina to remain a Panther at a time in which the team needed to free up money to spread around. Still, in an effort to get younger across the whole team, Carolina and Johnson parted ways, which led to his eventual retirement.

“A Panthers all the way through,” Johnson said, according to Newton. “The Panthers were all I knew, and all I ever wanted to know.”

Loyalty is a term that is thrown around but rarely displayed in professional sports; by fans, owners and players alike. Charles Johnson spent his entire career with the team that drafted him out of college and was willing to make changes to his contract to help the group. That is the closest example of loyalty that will come in professional sports and Johnson wanted his career to be known as being nothing more than a Carolina Panthers.