8 players who belong in the Carolina Panthers Hall of Shame

Rae Carruth – Former Carolina Panthers WR

• 1997-1999

Big things were expected of Rae Carruth after the Carolina Panthers took the wide receiver at No. 23 overall in the 1997 NFL Draft. His production as a rookie only heightened this sense of optimism, only for things to take a drastic downward turn soon after.

Carruth had plenty of talent. There is no getting away from that.

But his demons away from the gridiron would come back to haunt him in a massive way.

The wideout was convicted of conspiracy to murder his pregnant girlfriend Cherica Adams and got 19 years in prison as a result. Of course, this spelled the end of Carruth’s NFL career and left many questioning why these off the field concerns weren’t addressed during the evaluation process.

Carruth was released in 2018 and his son – Chancellor Lee Adams – who was born with permanent brain damage and cerebral palsy after his mother was killed, recently graduated from high school following a truly inspirational story.

This will go down as one of Carolina’s worst errors in judgment. One could argue that front office members and scouts cannot legislate for this sort of thing. But something this serious doesn’t just happen overnight.

There has to be more to it from a character perspective.

Carruth has a lifetime to figure out where it all went wrong. And the Panthers were left picking up the pieces.