Shhh! Carolina Panthers great Muhsin Muhammad explains it all on eve of the NFL Draft

As the NFL Draft approaches, the Carolina Panthers can only hope to hit a second-round home run like they did with Muhsin Muhammad.

The Panthers hold two high second-round picks — the 33rd and 39th overall — in the draft that starts April 25. In 1996, Muhammad was a promising wide receiver out of Michigan State that Carolina nabbed with the 43rd overall pick.

“Moose,” as most everyone calls him, went on to play 14 NFL seasons, including 11 with Carolina, and was known for his physicality, great hands and knack for making the biggest plays in the biggest games, He still owns the Super Bowl record for longest touchdown catch, at 85 yards against New England in the 2003 postseason.

Now 50 years old, Muhammad and his wife Christa have raised their six kids in the Charlotte area, and those kids have produced numerous college diplomas and athletic accolades. The Panthers, meanwhile, inducted Muhammad into the team’s Hall of Honor in 2023.

We met Muhammad at his office in Charlotte for his “Sports Legends” interview. He talked about shushing the crowd in Philly, his thoughts on the 2024 Panthers and Nick Saban’s viral comments about Moose that are still making the rounds on social media a decade later. This interview is edited for clarity and brevity. A fuller version is available on the free “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” podcast.

Scott Fowler: Since the NFL Draft is almost here, let’s start with your own selection 28 years ago. Where did you spend that day and how did you end up with the Panthers?

Muhsin Muhammad: Scotty O’Brien, who was (the first) special teams coach for the Panthers, scouted me at Michigan State as a junior. There were a couple of games where I made every single tackle on special teams. And as a senior, I had an explosive year (Muhammad only started for his final year in college).

That allowed me to be in a position to be drafted in the second round — a very deep wide receiver draft. Guys like Keyshawn Johnson, Marvin Harrison, Terry Glenn, Eric Moulds and Joe Horn.

I spend the day at home with my family. My parents were there. My wife was there; she was my girlfriend at the time. We sat in front of the TV. We didn’t have cell phones back then. So we just kind of sat next to the landline, and waited for that call.

My aunt gave me a Bible that day and it has that date in 1996 inscribed in it. It’s one I still read from today.

SF: What did you know about Charlotte at the time?

MM: Not even how to pronounce it. There was a city in Michigan called Charlotte, too, and it was pronounced Shar-LOT. So that’s how I thought that’s how you said “Charlotte.” We actually had to go pull the map out and try to figure out, “OK, well, where’s North Carolina? Where’s Charlotte at?” I was kind of a small town guy.

SF: You grew up in Lansing, Mich., and went to Michigan State. How far was the campus from where you grew up?

MM: Less than 20-30 minutes.

SF: Didn’t you attend some of Magic Johnson’s basketball camps?

MM: That’s true. Me and my brother — we got scholarships to go to his camps. Magic was obviously a local hero — a bigger-than-life figure. Basketball was one of my first loves.

SF: And also the sport that gave you your between-the-legs touchdown celebration?

MM: Yes. One of my favorite basketball players — Allen Iverson — used the crossover. And the touchdown dance is really taking that ball and going between the legs, like the ultimate sort of disrespect. Watching Iverson play as a kid and cross guys up was electrifying. So the dance was really about that.

It’s not an easy thing to execute, when you’ve got a football and try to go between your legs real fast. There’s kind of a little skill to it.

SF: You mentioned the Bible. You’ve said previously that your name means people often believe you’re a practicing Muslim, but that you’re actually a Christian.

MM: Yes. My father joined the Nation of Islam when he was in college. But the more I learned and kind of explored, I came across Christianity on my own in college and that’s what I adopted.

SF: Speaking of college at Michigan State, Nick Saban 10 years ago now had some viral comments about you in regard to second chances. Saban said, in part:

“Muhsin Muhammad ... who played for me at Michigan State: Everybody in the school, every newspaper guy, everybody was killing the guy because he got in trouble and said there’s no way he should be on our team.

“I didn’t kick him off the team. I suspended him. I made him do stuff. He graduated from Michigan State. He played 15 years in the league. All right? He’s president of a company now. And he has seven children and his oldest daughter goes to Princeton. So who was right?”

So when you hear that clip from Saban, what comes to mind?

MM: I’m thankful that I had a coach like Nick. I’m proud of what I made of my opportunities. ... Proud of my transition and things that I’ve done post-football. Proud about my family and my wife, who’s been there since Day One, right from high school.

It does give you a chance to reflect and look at the progress that you’ve made in your life and the things that you’ve done. ... You get a chance to celebrate them a little bit.

SF: What do you think your life would have been like if you had gotten kicked off the Michigan State team?

MM: It would have been different. But I’m very ambitious. ... I think I would have tried to find a way to get into playing professional sports. Could have been basketball, really. Could have been football. But even outside of that, I think, you know, I’ve always been a very ambitious person. And so success was a part of my DNA.

SF: Let’s fact-check Coach Saban for a couple of those things. He said 15 years with the Panthers. It was 11.

MM: He rounded up! He rounded up on the kids too (Muhammad has six; Saban said he had seven). But he had most of the facts right. One of my daughters did go to Princeton. It has been some years since he coached me at Michigan State (laughs).

SF: What do you do now?

MM: I’m a managing partner at Axum Capital Partners, which is a boutique private equity fund. We invest in the food and beverage sector. It was a dream of mine to create a platform to be able to invest in operating companies. ... I’ve got two partners. ... Decent-sized company. Not too big.

SF: When you were a rookie coming to the Panthers as a freshly-drafted player in 1996, what was that like?

MM: Well, I signed late. I don’t know why I was a camp holdout, but I was. ... When I came in, the veterans tried to kill me (laughs). It was probably the hottest day (ever) in Spartanburg. They made me take just about every rep. I had to get an IV after practice.

But in the first meeting, I got to sit next to Dwight Stone on one side and Mark Carrier on the other. Mark was amazing as a mentor. And in that meeting, I sat down and watched Dwight Stone take all these color-coded markers and color-code each position. I’m soaking all this in. And I asked him, “Why are you doing all that?” And he was like, “Well, it helps me stay (awake) in the meetings.”

I knew it was deeper than that. It was about being organized. And Dwight Stone was really a special teamer. He didn’t even play offense. He was a backup receiver. But his study habits were amazing. The next day, man, I got all these markers and I started doing the same stuff. ... It was an amazing veteran locker room: guys like Sam Mills, Carlton Bailey, Eric Davis, Lamar Lathon, Willie Green ... they set the tone for us on how to think like a pro.

SF: Eventually you were the veteran, and a third-round pick came in 2001 named Steve Smith. How would you describe that long-term relationship?

MM: A true brotherhood. Steve and I are even closer today than we were as players. Like any brotherhood, there are going to be ups and downs. Tumultuous times. There’s gonna be good days, bad days, hard days and everything in between ... Steve’s rookie year, we went 1-15. People forget about that. And two years later, we’re in a Super Bowl. ... I learned a lot from Steve, and, I think, vice versa.

SF: You were the veteran guy. The No. 1 receiver. And then, Steve started really rolling.

MM: Yeah, having a younger guy come in, oozing talent. ... At that point in my career, I’m 6-7 years in the league. I wanted to win, it was about championships. ... When you talk to Jake (Delhomme, the Carolina quarterback), he’ll tell you he played with two very competitive guys who wanted the ball every single play. And as a receiver, if you don’t want the ball every play, then you’re playing the wrong sport.

... One of the guys who was so influential in terms of leadership for me was when Reggie White came in. Reggie talked to me all the time about taking somebody with you.

And those messages echoed in my ears as I started to mature as a player. Smitty was one of those guys that I just felt like: “Take this guy with you.” It made our team better.

SF: Your first impression of new Panthers head coach Dave Canales?

MM: People don’t care about how much you know until they know about how much you care. I think that is more prevalent in this present-day athlete than it ever has been in the past. ... It’s just a different era of player and I think Dave Canales really, genuinely cares about the success of his players. That bodes well for him.

SF: And Bryce Young?

MM: I remember watching Bryce Young in the Army All-American game he played. My son (Muhsin Muhammad III, now a receiver at Texas A&M) was in it, too. I saw him and said: “This kid is gonna be amazing. ...” Saw him play in person in college.

Amazing player. ... I think he could be a successful quarterback at the (NFL) level. It’s going to take some weapons around him ... that I think are now starting to take shape. ... I like Dan Morgan as a general manager. I know how passionate he is about football.

And there’s another saying: “It’s better to be lucky than good.” They need a little bit of that Panther magic back.

SF: Let’s end with you describing your two most famous plays as a Panther: First, your 85-yard touchdown in the Super Bowl against New England.

MM: I think some would call it a broken play. But I thought it was well-designed (laughs). Throw it deep to me ... I had told Jake, “Ty Law (the New England cornerback) has been squatting on me. Every time I run this out route, he just squats on it and jumps it.”... On that play, I said: “Hey, I’m gonna I’m gonna fake like I’m gonna run an out route and just go run by him.”

And I did that, and he squatted just like I thought he would, and I ran right by him. I was so open.

I look back I saw Jake looking on the other side of the field and I kind of slow down a little bit and then he heaves the ball up into the rafters. It’s one of the toughest balls to catch, when it’s coming over your inside shoulder and it’s dropping over your outside shoulder. ... But I sped up and caught it. The safety was coming up on me and I was able to give him a stiff-arm. ... So that was the play. I rerun it in my mind all the time. ... Steve on the other side was the same way. We lived for those epic moments.

SF: Tell me about the play in Philadelphia, where you shushed the crowd in the NFC Championship game in the 2003 postseason and made Sports Illustrated’s cover for doing so?

MM: That was a “topper” route. ... It’s a double move, and I had options. But it was double coverage. ... I start to bend in front of the safety, and I see the ball coming. I later found out that Jake threw that ball almost laying on his back, and he never even saw me. He just kind of threw it up there for grabs. And I ran the double move on both of the guys and had to come back for the ball because it was kind of underthrown. ...

I remember the night before the game. ... It was 1 o’clock in the morning, and some Philadelphia fans set off the alarm at the hotel.

And here we are, that whole team, standing outside in the freezing cold right? And we’re like, “OK, they’re gonna pay for this! They gonna pay for this!” We were like hornets in the nest, shaken up. ...

And so when I caught that touchdown, I was just like, “Shhhhhhhh. Y’all know what’s coming, right?”

The crowd got real quiet after I caught that touchdown. I took a knee and I did this little silent little gesture to the crowd, like, “Hush up. Be quiet. The secret is out.”

The national award-winning “Sports Legends” series includes 1-on-1 interviews with guests like Richard Petty, Steph Curry, Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, Jake Delhomme, Bobby Richardson, Alonzo Mourning and Dawn Staley. Those are also available on the “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” podcast, where a fuller version of the Muhsin Muhammad interview can also be found.

New “Sports Legends” episodes debut every 2-3 weeks throughout 2024. The “Sports Legends” coffee-table book debuted in late 2023 and is now available at SportsLegendsBook.com.