Exposing the NFL's biggest secret: Panthers, Jaguars are the same animal

There are 32 franchises in the NFL, each with a unique nickname. Or so you thought. You poor, gullible, ill-informed fan.

You see, this whole time, two NFL teams have covertly shared a nickname. You may have rooted for one, and against the other, and this whole time you were unaware of your own hypocrisy.

We at theScore are here to blow the whole thing wide open.

Are you sitting down?

There is no such species as a "panther." It is merely a term used to describe a melanistic (black) big cat. Jaguars can be spotted or black, or some combination of the two (like the photo above).

When they are black, jaguars are called panthers.

Therefore, the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars are basically named after the same animal.

(Photo courtesy: Action Images)

Now, it's actually slightly more complicated than that. There are also cougars, which are the same thing as mountain lions, but not exactly the same as jaguars (confused yet?). And cougars can also be black, and when they are, they're also called panthers.

Take a deep breath. Process what you've just learned.

Because it gets worse.

The NFL doesn't just have two teams that are named after what's essentially the same animal; it also let them both enter the league as expansion teams in the same year.

It's unforgivable.

One could have been the Jacksonville Jackhammers. The other could have been the Carolina Crawdads. They could have been anything other than the same thing.

Instead, we got two teams, both admitted to the NFL in 1995 and headquartered a mere 383 miles apart, named after the same animal.