Never knew much of Collins, due to the fact I became a fan in 03 and he was long gone by then. Hopefully the guy can have a quiet retirement compared to the rockiness of his NFL career.

Collins was a straight up douche, he blamed the Panthers for his problems and disrespected our organization. Goodbye!

Kind of made me sad, oddly. And it doesn’t have anything to do with Kerry Collins. I agree that he is kind of a douche. But on the other side of things, I thought about him being our very first draft pick. Certainly no where near as sad as it will be when Kasay retires, but a similar feeling. Again, my momentary feeling of sadness had nothing to do with Collins—just that he was our first ever draft pick, and its that time of the month for me.

/sarcasm

I was pissed at Collins for a long time, even as recently as a few years ago. But whether I like it or not, he put together a very solid NFL run even after his rocky last days with us. Good for him, I suppose.

I was 10 when the franchise came into being. I think I maybe watched one or two games here and there. I mainly remember my dad being so impressed that the team made it to the NFC Championship game in their second season. That’s really quite remarkable, not just because of the franchise’s new existence, but because they were taken there with a second-year QB.

It’s a shame that he had the alcohol issues, because, if you look at his career numbers, he probably could have been a franchise QB for the Panthers for years and years.

They’re not quite Hall of Fame numbers, but they’re not as far away as you might think. Collins ranks 9th all-time in passes completed and 11th in career passing yards, ahead of guys like Johnny Unitas, Jim Kelly, Phil Simms and Steve Young. He’s 29th on the all-time touchdown list, ahead of Simms, Troy Aikman and Joe Namath.
…
It was Ernie Accorsi, then general manager of the New York Giants, who gave Collins another shot. Accorsi placed a huge amount of faith in Collins when no one else had any, and Collins repaid him by getting himself sober and leading the Giants to Super Bowl XXXV.
The NFC Championship game that year was a Kerry Collins highlight reel. The Vikings went in with the a game plan of “Let’s make Kerry Collins beat us.” Collins obliged, tuning the Vikings up with 28-of-39 passing for 381 yards and five touchdowns.
…
In 2006, he signed with the Titans, mostly as a caddy for Vince Young(notes). But Young was injured in the first game of the 2008 season, and Collins had another magic run in him. It didn’t last very long in the playoffs, but under Collins, the Titans went 13-3 and were the top seed in the AFC playoffs.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Kerry-Collins-ends-a-remarkable-comeback-of-a-ca?urn=nfl-wp3192

Collins retires with 40,441 career passing yards and 206 passing touchdowns. The yardage mark puts him 11th all time, 110 yards behind Hall of Famer Joe Montana. His TD total is good for 29th, one behind Randall Cunningham.

http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2011-07-07/titans-qb-kerry-collins-retires-from-nfl

Over 40,000 career yards, despite the fact that he missed significant playing time due to off-the-field issues – which, by all accounts, he’s overcome. (I’m curious – Does anyone know if there was any real reconciliation between Collins and Moose?)

Anyway, I’m kind of surprised, because he did express some interest in staying with the Titans as a mentor/backup to Locker. Even though the guy looks old and beat-up as heck, I’d still rather start him than Locker. I don’t understand why the Titans picked Locker – especially that high given his serious accuracy issues.

Oh well. Point is, I’m glad that Collins did eventually get his life together and settled down with a family. Very few QBs could have made such a turnaround and gone on to have a successful career after having the rocky start that he did. I can understand why so many Carolina fans would have such disdain for him for the way he left here, but I’m impressed by what he’s done since then (not just career-wise, but he’s contributed quite a bit to various charities).

He showed promise during the 96 playoff run and gave us warm, fuzzy feelings about what might have been. Sadly, he went through a multitude of problems afterwards and was never the same in Carolina. I am glad he rediscovered himself and found success after he left.

 I guess this Collins rookie card isnt gonna make me millions now……..

LOL, got caught up in the moment (96 NFC championship game, pro-bowl) and bought myself an authentic Collins jersey heading into the ’97 season with intentions of getting it signed at some point, but it never happened.

Collins did quit on us, but he turned his life around and had a respectable NFL career, happy trails Kerry.

I really think the Carolina Panthers coaching staff had a lot to do with his collapse here as a Panther. The guy, by all accounts, went on to become a model player for every team he played for after he was released by the Panthers.

If you listen to New York Giants and Tennessee players they all say how remarkably he turned his life around and made the best of it. He was a very talented QB that should have been given the opportunity to grow up and mature as a Carolina Panther.

In my opinion, he’s the epitome of a guy making the most of a second chance. people can certainly learn a thing or two from him. I wish him all the success in the world and a happy retirement.

but he was a douche during his time in Carolina…very full of himself. I saw him in Spartanburg during his rookie training camp at a bar with teammates. He was very arrogant