Pounding until the end

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Sam Mills was laughing and joking one day in the Bank of America Stadium equipment room a few weeks ago. On the outside, he was showing his characteristic strength.

Inside, there was something else, something only a friend of years could sense. It came from a final handshake that came without a word of finality.

“I just had a feeling Sam was saying goodbye and he wanted me to remember him as happy and strong,” Carolina Panthers equipment manager Jackie Miles said as he fought back tears.

Miles and many others cried Monday as news came that Mills finally had lost a battle. Mills, 45, died at home shortly before noon from the intestinal cancer he had fought for a year and a half.

Mills and Miles met in 1983, one a linebacker and the other an equipment staffer for the United States Football League’s Philadelphia Stars, and they were reunited with the Carolina Panthers.

In the equipment room, Mills said he was going to Arizona to try a new treatment for the cancer.

“Sam always felt his role was to be strong and make other people laugh and be happy,” Miles said.

Funeral arrangements were not complete Monday evening. Mills is survived by his wife, Melanie and four children – sons Sam III and Marcus and daughters Larissa and Sierra.

Mills’ passing sent waves of sadness through the Panthers and the rest of the National Football League. Mills had continued working as Carolina’s linebackers coach after his diagnosis. He missed some practice time while enduring chemotherapy and radiation, but was never absent from a game.

“Sam was just a solid all-around guy,” said Panthers defensive end Mike Rucker. “The world could use a lot more Sam Millses.”

“Solid” was a word often used to describe Mills, the only player in the Panthers Hall of Honor and the only player with a statue outside Bank of America stadium.

“That statue says it all,” former Panthers teammate Eric Davis said. “It’s true.”

“I called him Sam Rock,” said Kevin Greene, another former Panthers linebacker. “He was not only the physical rock, but he was the spiritual rock and the emotional rock and the leadership rock.”

“Keep pounding” was Mills’ motto from the day of his diagnosis, and it also could have served as the theme of the life of a man who always seemed to overcome the odds.

“Words are inadequate to express what Sam meant to the Panthers’ organization,” Panthers owner Jerry Richardson said in a statement. “We were privileged to have him as a member of our family, and we are devastated over this loss.”

The Panthers also said they were blessed to have Mills for as long as they did. Player after player said the Panthers never would have made their run to Super Bowl XXXVIII without him.

His diagnosis came two weeks after linebacker Mark Fields, former of Washington State University, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease. The Panthers were hit hard by the news, but used Fields and Mills for inspiration. The team wore T-shirts with their jersey numbers and made “keep pounding” their motto. Mills delivered an emotional speech to the team before a playoff victory against Dallas, telling the Panthers how he had decided to keep fighting after his diagnosis.

“Everybody’s broken up right now,” Rucker said, “but there are a lot of positive things we can take from the time that Sam was here.”