Six days after former Carolina Panthers wide receiver Rae Carruth was released from prison, where he served nearly 19 years for conspiracy to commit murder, one notable person in attendance at Sunday’s NFL game at Bank of America Stadium will be Carruth’s son, Chancellor Lee Adams.
Thanks to Carolina fan Jason Underwood and the Panthers, Adams and his grandmother Saundra Adams will have field access, lower-section seating and special parking for the 1 p.m. game against the Baltimore Ravens.
Underwood informed Riley Fields, Carolina’s director of community relations, earlier in the week that he had tickets for Chancellor and Saundra Adams in the upper section. Fields, aware that Chancellor was born with cerebral palsy, upgraded them to VIP access to make it easier to get around the facility.
Fields told ESPN on Friday he did not have to seek permission from team owner David Tepper or anyone in the organization to make the upgrades.
Chancellor was born with birth defects because he was deprived of blood and oxygen while in the womb of his mother, Cherica Adams, after she was shot four times in a plot devised by Carruth in 1999.
Chancellor was born hours after the shooting. Cherica did not survive.
Carruth, Carolina’s 1997 first-round pick, was sentenced to 18 to 24 years for his role in the murder. Now 44, he was released from a North Carolina prison on Monday and reportedly is living out of state.
“If Jason hadn’t reached out, I don’t know that we would have known they would be here,” Fields said. “I just thought we could do something to make it a more positive experience while they’re at the stadium.”
Saundra Adams told the Charlotte Observer, which initially reported the plans for Sunday, “this was a nice gesture by the team.”
“We are both so excited,” she added.