AP

The Panthers aren’t old enough to have too many traditions.

But they were almost too young to keep one of them going.

After beating the Cardinals Saturday night in their wild card game, Panthers players came back onto the field to take a victory lap to thank their fans, high-fiving the crowd that stayed through the rain to watch their first home playoff win in a decade.

And because it’s been so long, that tradition almost fell by the wayside.

The first one came in the 1996 playoffs, when linebacker Sam Mills took them back onto the field after they stunned the Cowboys. The next time was when quarterback Jake Delhomme and company got the Cowboys again after the 2003 season, though Mills was there for that game and there was more carryover in the organization.

But since then, the Panthers have only had two other home playoff games, and they were trounced by the Cardinals in 2008 and the 49ers last year.

Naturally, no players remain from the last team to win a playoff game in Charlotte, and very few staffers on the football side have held on for the last decade.

So the job of telling coach Ron Rivera fell to head athletic trainer Ryan Vermillion, who was nervous about going to the coach in the immediate aftermath of the win.

“Ron was like, ‘We have to do what?'” Vermillion said with a laugh.

A few other team staffers had mentioned it to people, but didn’t want to spread the word too far before the game, because people who work in the NFL are generally superstitious freaks.

So thank the trainer for keeping the tradition alive, since home wins in Charlotte are rare, and deserve to be savored.