Son Jeff and I, being serious fans of the Carolina Panthers football team and having dressed ourselves in the appropriate Panthers shirt and cap, made the long (four hour) trip to Charlotte yesterday for their opening game. Actually, "game" is a misnomer: it was a non-game, for our team lost in an embarrassing fashion. For the painful details, look under "debacle" in today's sports pages.

Far more interesting, and certainly more enjoyable, was the tail-gating experience before the game. Every Sunday afternoon, hundreds, perhaps thousands, gather in the parking lots surrounding the stadium to set up elaborate awnings, professional grade cookers and grills, large screen satellite TV sets, lawn chairs and lounges of every description, and boom boxes set to the max. We got there at 10:00 (that's three hours before the game) and were one of the last to park near our group, the Panther Huddle.

A local rib and barbecue eatery volunteered to cater for our group, and many added to the menu of food and drink. (For those from away, in these parts "barbecue" is a noun, not a verb.) Several that I talked to didn't even have tickets to the game, but they made sure they were there for the tail-gating. Although no one used the word, it was a gala event! But there was a particular dimension that I wanted to zero in on.

Yesterday's opponent, the Atlanta Falcons, is probably our biggest rival. Nah, it IS our biggest rival, for they've dominated us since the Panthers entered the National Football League, until last year, when we won both of the Falcon games. So everyone on both sides of the field and tail-gate was pretty hyped for the game, and I would have expected the rivalry to be intense to the point of being personal. Not so.

Wearing my Panthers shirt, I wandered through some of the Falcons parties, exchanging greetings and jibes, while a noisy contingent of red and black clad Falcon fans came to our party, waving flags and greetings, and there was a genuine feeling of camaraderie: we were all football fans. Sure, we cheered for our team and jeered at the other, but bottom line we shared a common bond.

I suppose many occasional fans might snicker at this melodrama, and some of the tail-gaters might pretend it isn't so, but that's what I saw. I will, at least in print, resist the temptation to allegorize.