Will Grier always dreamed of playing in the NFL but never did he expect that he would be doing it for the hometown team that he grew up following.

“I never thought it would be this way,” he said.

Grier, a native of the Charlotte area, quite literally grew up with the Panthers as he was born in 1995, the same year that they begin playing football in the city. His family had tickets in section 229 of the stadium and spent many Sundays watching games unfold inside Bank of America Stadium.