Panthers specialists have experience in Atlanta, going back to high school

Nov 16, 2025 at 08:26 AM

Darin Gantt

The Carolina Panthers face the Green Bay Packers Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, WI.

CHARLOTTE — Some people can be intimidated by the big stage.

But for the Panthers specialists, kicking in Atlanta's professional stadiums isn't as big a deal, since they did it in high school.

Rookie kicker Ryan Fitzgerald played two high school games in Mercedes-Benz Stadium and one in the old Georgia Dome, while punter Sam Martin's first actual game of football was played in the former Falcons' home.

"Yep, that was the first time I ever kicked a football in a game," Martin said with a nod, though he wasn't exactly overtaken by nostalgia.

How'd that go for you?

"I can't remember. I think it went well," he replied, "I can't really remember, to be honest with you.

"There's a picture I just keep remembering of me on the sideline there, and I remember warming up. I don't really remember the game. It's been a long time, like 30 years ago."

It wasn't actually that long ago, Martin's not old enough to have played in Fulton County Stadium or anything.

But in 2007, Martin's Starr's Mill High School Panthers played Cherokee in a season-opener that was played in the Georgia Dome. Cherokee won that game 10-3, but Martin nailed a 37-yard field goal that day.

"There you go," Martin replied when the research department got back to him. "Nailed it."

The story of how he ended up there might be more interesting than the game itself.

Martin was a soccer player, and a good one. He had eight college scholarship offers by his junior year in high school. So he was pretty casual about football, to be honest.

"Then my senior year, all my friends played football, so I was like, I'll come kick field goals just to hang out, and then I started getting recruited," he said. "And I was kind of sick of soccer by that point."

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Once he showed some aptitude as a kicker, he talked to interested schools about the possibility of playing both sports, and when he chose Appalachian State, he figured he'd give this football thing a year and see how it went.

"So I was like, all right, sure, I'll roll the dice on it and see how it goes," Martin said.

The only problem was that Martin may not have been prepared for college conditioning.

"They scholarshipped me to be the kicker that year, but I'd never lifted a weight in my life, and they just blew my legs up, so I couldn't kick to save my life," he laughed. "So they redshirted me, and the junior that ended up starting had a good year, so they're like, if you want to play next year, learn how to punt. So I spent that redshirt year working on punting."

The rest, as they say, is history, as Martin went on to earn All-American Honors for the Mountaineers and was chosen in the fifth round of the 2013 NFL draft.

The Carolina Panthers hold practice on Nov. 13, 2025 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, NC.

Fitzgerald's path to the NFL was slightly more conventional, but he's also barely old enough to have played in the Georgia Dome.

His freshman year at Colquitt County High, the Packers lost to Mill Creek in their opener, as their freshman kicker hit 2-of-3 field goals and all of his extra points in the old stadium. The one he missed was blocked, so not entirely his fault. (And maybe his experience with the Colquitt Packers prepared him for his recent walk-off at Lambeau Field.)

"I didn't know what to expect, really," Fitzgerald said of kicking in that old tent-topped stadium. "Going to a stadium like that was pretty cool for a freshman, you go in and you're like, wow, like it's a big, big stadium, compared to a high school stadium."

He'd kick in Mercedes-Benz twice in high school, opening his senior year with a win over North Gwinnett before losing in the state championship to Parkview, and the atmosphere was completely different for him.

Fitzgerald's already a master of understatement anyway, but he hit a couple of 50-yarders in the same building he'll line up in today, so it was a pretty big deal. He hit eight 50-plus field goals as a high schooler (including a 60-yarder), and set a state record his senior year with 22 field goals, earning high school All-American honors before he went to Florida State.

"It just felt bigger," he said. "It felt a lot bigger, a lot taller, yeah, that's about it."