Panthers head coach Frank Reich is about to mark a huge milestone in Atlanta. Again.

Frank Reich has had a bunch of back-to-the-future moments since he became the Carolina Panthers’ coach in January, but none of them will be as unusual as the one he’s about to face.

In 1995, with Reich as the starting quarterback, the Carolina Panthers headed to Atlanta to play the Falcons in their regular-season opener — the first game in franchise history.

In 2023, with Reich as the head coach, the Carolina Panthers are heading to Atlanta to play the Falcons in their regular-season opener — the first game in a new era for the team.

It’s undeniably odd that Reich would play such a central role in these two road games at Atlanta, 28 years apart. But no matter what happens Sunday in Reich’s first game as a head coach for Carolina, he will always be the quarterback who started the Panthers’ inaugural game — a 23-20 overtime loss to the Falcons.

I was in Atlanta for that first Panthers game in 1995 and still remember it today, in a sepia-toned, nostalgia-drenched sort of way.

But what did it really feel like? I’ve recently interviewed Reich, a half-dozen of his 1995 teammates and Dom Capers — then Carolina’s head coach, now a senior defensive assistant on Reich’s coaching staff — looking for that answer.

On the eve of the Carolina Panthers regular-season game No. 451, here’s the inside story of their Game No. 1, directly from the men involved, in oral history form. Quotes have been edited for clarity and brevity.

The buildup

The Panthers acquired Reich as a free agent in March 1995. At the time, he was 33 years old and a 10-year NFL veteran who had spent his career mostly backing up star QB Jim Kelly in Buffalo. Before that first game at Atlanta on Sept. 3, 1995, the Panthers played five preseason games and held a brutal training camp at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

FRANK REICH (quarterback, 1995): I ended up in Charlotte because of Bill Polian, our GM in Buffalo who then came down here. I was a free agent and obviously Carolina was an expansion team. He told me he was going to take a quarterback in the draft, and wanted me there to be the backup, and that I might start a few games along the way. But I was brought in to be the backup. I knew that.

As for training camp in Spartanburg: I know it’s hot now, but you will never convince me that there’s ever been a hotter training camp in the history of the NFL. I just don’t think it’s possible.

I know it’s almost 30 years later, and you tend to romanticize certain things. But we were doing two-a-days — morning and afternoon practices. At some point we realized we can’t keep doing this, so we switched to morning and night practices, and they brought in portable lights.

And those portable generators for the lights — they were terrible. They were loud. The fumes were obnoxious. Add in all the heat and humidity: Wow.

DOM CAPERS (head coach, 1995): We needed the lights, but they were run by portable generators since we didn’t have permanent ones yet, and the thing that stood out in my mind was how the fumes hovered down in that valley.

So that became an issue. I remember a couple of guys complaining. They were getting nauseated, because the fumes were getting to them. So I figured we probably couldn’t put up with that very long. You’ve got a pro football team out there, having to deal with fumes.

GERALD WILLIAMS (defensive lineman, 1995): That team had to get to know each other, and we had to get to know Frank, too. He wasn’t a rah-rah guy — he wasn’t then and he isn’t now. He was kind of a coach on the field, a little like Tom Brady. He had expectations and expected everybody to perform their particular jobs.

WILLIE GREEN (wide receiver, 1995): Frank was laid-back. No emotions, just even keel. Never got distracted, never seemed to feel any pressure. And the ball he threw? It was so easy to catch.

PETE METZELAARS (tight end, 1995): Looking back, Frank was always a little cutting edge on analytics. Frank was one of the first guys to have an Apple computer. We were in this NBA fantasy league together while we were with the Bills, and Frank kept track of the fantasy league stats on his Apple computer, decades before that became common.

And we’d be looking at his Apple like: “What is that thing? What’s it do?”

DOM CAPERS: The thing that stands out in my mind that first year was the stadium wasn’t finished yet. So we would have a walk-through practice on Saturday morning and then we’d either go fly out if we’re playing on the road or, if we were playing at home, we would get on a bus and bus three hours to Clemson (The Panthers played home games in Clemson in 1995; Bank of America Stadium opened in 1996).

So the joke with our players was that the only difference in playing at home and playing the San Francisco 49ers on the West Coast was a couple of flight attendants serving a hot meal, because it took us the same amount of time to get to Clemson as it did to San Francisco. That game at Atlanta, because it was such a short flight, might have been our shortest trip to play a game all season.

A quick TD for Panthers

The Panthers played that first game at the Georgia Dome, an almost-new facility that opened in 1992 and would host a large portion of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta less than a year later. The crowd was modest for an NFL opener: 58,808 fans and about 13,000 empty seats.

Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish sang the national anthem. Atlanta got the ball first and quickly punted to Carolina, which startled the Falcons by beginning the game with Reich dropping back to pass six times in a row. Carolina scored a touchdown on its first drive ever, an 8-yard TD pass from Reich to Metzelaars.

PETE METZELAARS: It was exciting. That first series? It was bang, bang, bang.

FRANK REICH: The scoring play was just a little K 5, Y-corner, hard play-action. This was a Joe Pendry special (Pendry was the Panthers’ offensive coordinator). We were going to be a power team, so we blocked down like it was going to be a power (run) and then Pete ran a corner to the end zone. It was just wide open.

PETE METZELAARS: Touchdown pass. First drive. First series. First game. It’s like: “Wow, this is easy!”

FRANK REICH: Then on the second drive, we scored again (a field goal, for a 10-0 start). I’m going to hold myself accountable on this, because I’ve told a few people now we scored two touchdowns to start. Not true, it turns out. Still, a field goal and a 10-0 lead was pretty good.

I wasn’t surprised, though. I remember some of my conversations with Mr. Richardson (then-team owner Jerry Richardson) at the time. He was always trying to lower my expectations, saying: “Hey, we’re an expansion team.”

But I’m the starting quarterback, and this was Year 11 for me. It was my first year going into an NFL season as a starting quarterback. So you could not convince me that we weren’t going to win every game. That’s the way I felt.

DERRICK MOORE (running back, 1995): Frank lit it up that day. I’m sitting there watching and it was unbelievable. I thought at the time that it was going to be 16-17 weeks of amazing football for him.

DWIGHT STONE (special teams, 1995): It was like a dream, the way we started. Here we were, doing something that for the rest of our lives, no matter how many teams come here and play for Carolina, that no one else could do. We were the first players to ever play in the first game. And we were winning.

GERALD WILLIAMS: It was a hard-fought battle all the way through. We played pretty well on defense. And Sam Mills — wow. I can’t say enough about him that year. Sam was our leader on that defense. He was the quarterback of that defense, starting from that game onward.

LAMAR LATHON (linebacker, 1995): In that Atlanta game, I was trying to strip the ball and I was all over the field (Lathon had eight tackles, a sack and a forced fumble). I was getting after Metcalf (Atlanta’s Eric Metcalf, a receiver who was the Falcons’ most dynamic offensive weapon).

I do remember that Big Cat, Mr. Richardson, had said the week before: “I’m going to do something really special for the player who plays an integral part for us winning our first football game.” So I was thinking maybe a bonus or something. I was like: “We’re going to win this game. I can feel it!”

The fourth quarter

The Panthers led both 10-0 and 13-3, but the Falcons then scored 17 points in a row as the game moved into the fourth quarter. Reich would throw for 329 yards in the game, the second-most yardage he would have in his career. But he was also sacked nine times and was constantly under pressure as the offensive line struggled to block the Falcons.

Charlotte Observer columnist Tom Sorensen wrote the next day of the pass-blocking woes, which would become something of a theme for the past 28 years: “After the quick start, the offensive line played as if it were outnumbered, and Frank Reich stood behind it as immobile as a pole. Sometimes he was a quarterback. Sometimes he was a human sacrifice.”

With 1:15 to go, the Panthers got the ball one last time at their own 20, needing to go 80 yards quickly for a touchdown to stay alive. They advanced to Atlanta’s 44-yard line with 35 seconds left. Then Reich heaved a deep throw to the left sideline, in the direction of a double-covered Green.

WILLIE GREEN: I was from Athens, Georgia — now I’ve moved back to Athens and bought a sports arena — and had grown up as a Falcons fan. I had wanted to get on with the Falcons the year before and had talked to (Falcons head coach) June Jones about it, so I took this game kind of personal. And I had a lot of friends and family at that game.

On that last play, the defensive back was actually in front of me. I had to slow up and adjust to the ball that Frank threw. But I had a chance. And then I felt the ball hit my shoulder pad. I kind of caught it, and then it bounced up into the air, and I double-caught it. But I caught it.

FRANK REICH: The throw wasn’t the most beautiful thing in the world. It was a little bit ugly. But it worked.

WILLIE GREEN: Ask Frank if he was throwing a “fade stop.” We used to do those sometimes when you couldn’t get behind the defensive back. You threw it a little shorter, giving the wide receiver a shot at coming back to the ball. Yeah, he might have been throwing a “fade stop,” now that I think of it. Ask him.

FRANK REICH: No, it wasn’t a “fade stop.” It wasn’t an intentional under-throw. With a tall guy like Willie (Green was 6-foot-4) who was aggressive to the ball, it was more: “Just get it up there and let him go get it.

A lot of quarterbacks even today will still have that mentality when they have a guy that they trust down the field — a big guy, especially. So I just put it up in the air and gave him a chance.”

The 2-point conversion

Down 20-19 with 26 seconds to go, Capers held up two fingers, signifying that he wanted the Panthers to go for two points and a potential 21-20 win. At the time, this strategy was nearly unheard of in the NFL, although it has become far more common in recent years as the rise of analytics has generally made coaches gamble more often.

FRANK REICH: When I look back on it, I’m even more amazed at Coach Capers, because that call was so far ahead of his time. To not flinch and say we’re going for two?

What’s also amazing is defensive coaches are typically a little bit more conservative play callers in those situations. They will often do the more conventional thing, because they believe in their defense. And he didn’t hesitate. It was, “Yeah, we’re going for two.”

DOM CAPERS: There wasn’t much doubt in my mind. We were going to go for the win in the very first game. The other thing I was thinking about was the Falcons had one of the best placekickers of all time in Morten Andersen, who I had been with in New Orleans for six years. If we went into overtime, I knew what he was capable of.

So we had a play call that, after looking at it — it was going to come open. And then our right tackle (Derrick Graham) jumped offsides.

FRANK REICH: They were running a pressure, and Mark Carrier was going to be running the crossing route for us. It looked like he was going to be wide open but I couldn’t throw it because they had already thrown the flag.

But that’s one of those things a quarterback always says (Laughs). Somebody on the line flinches and the quarterback comes off the field and goes: “Oh, we were gonna have exactly what we wanted!”

After the five-yard penalty, Capers sent placekicker John Kasay out with the kicking team. On the Fox Sports broadcast, play-by-play announcer Thom Brennaman said: “Now Dom Capers says I’m not going to take the chance. I’m going to go ahead and kick the extra point.”

Added Ron Pitts, Brennaman’s partner in the booth: “You can’t blame him. Graham has already put him in a position to lose the game by jumping back offsides here twice before. You’re not going to give him a chance now to ruin it for you.”

Graham, who played at Appalachian State and was the Panthers’ highest-paid lineman at the time, was flagged three times for false starts during the game. Said Graham afterward in the locker room, explaining the flags: “It was noisy toward the end, but there’s no excuse, really.”

The aftermath

The Panthers kicked the extra point after Graham’s error and the game went to overtime. But on Carolina’s first series, Reich was sacked for the ninth time — this time by an unblocked Falcon Lester Archambeau — and fumbled the ball away. Andersen quickly kicked a 35-yard field goal and Atlanta won, 23-20.

Reich would be permanently benched by Capers and Polian two games later and replaced by rookie quarterback Kerry Collins, who went 7-6 as a starter — including a 21-17 victory against Atlanta — that year then 12-4 the next season. In 1996, Reich left for the New York Jets, so his time as a player at Carolina only lasted one season.

The Georgia Dome was demolished in 2017. The Panthers will open the season Sunday once again at the Falcons, but this time in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

BILL POLIAN (general manager, 1995): Sure, it was difficult to bench Frank. But by the same token, as he would be the first to tell you, when you’re in a position of authority, you’ve got to do what’s best for the team.

As much as it hurt me personally, it was obvious it was the right move. Kerry stepped in and did a great job from there on in. And Frank was never anything but the ideal, perfect teammate.

FRANK REICH: Listen, that season was still fun and memorable for me. I knew I had been signed to be the backup.

And now against the Falcons, in 2023 instead of 1995, I want to make something happen. I don’t know if it’s appropriate or not. But to me, it feels appropriate.

I want to walk out with Coach Capers, onto the field, when we go out for the first time. I just want to recognize that moment. Make a note of it. I’m going to tell him:

Hey, coach. We’re walking out together.

In Atlanta. Again.