So Wednesday, which turned out to be a wasted day, driving to Greenville only to find out the event I was going to cover wasn't going to happen, ended up being at least a good factoid day.

I love factoids. If Altoids made a product called Factoids, I would eat them up like my mom's spinach casserole and mashed potatoes at Christmas.

Factoids make you a more interesting person, although in this case this particular factoid isn't going to win me any friends or influence any people.

Everyone knows my particular disdain for the Carolina Panthers, you know, that NFL team everyone is drooling over like I drool over my mom's spinach casserole and mashed potatoes at Christmas.

Coming back from Greenville, at least now knowing exactly where the federal courthouse is, I turned the radio back on after traveling in silence on the way there, making up a rock opera in my head about the Rockfish 15, a rock opera which stands no chance of winning a Grammy, or whatever other rock opera awards there are.

Eventually growing tired of singing out loud this musical morality play about Operation Rockfish, I turn the radio back on when in range of local radio station AM 1400 and catch the David Glenn Show.

The factoid he is talking about, to me, is quite interesting because it holds a theory I've had about the Panthers ever since that dismal day they were allowed into the NFL and took away TV coverage of North Carolina's real team — the Washington Redskins.

My theory has long been the first fans of the Carolina Panthers had to come from somewhere else because they were an expansion team. So those who spew they were fans since the beginning have some explaining to do because obviously these treasonous folks have a memory issue, failing to mention they liked another team before the Panthers came into being.

I can forgive later generations of Panthers fans because they don't known any better, just some illogical reasoning that just because they are a North Carolina team they should root for them. I am a native North Carolinian, faithful to the Halifax Resolves, Historic Murfreesboro and the rich farming heritage in my father's blood, but as far as taking an oath of allegiance to a particular sports team because they're in North Carolina, no, it's not going to happen.

The factoid David Glenn shared as I grew tired of my Operation Rockfish rock opera came from the public policy website and it didn't really surprise me because it goes like this:

Last December when the Panthers were 3-8-1, only 34% of voters in the state said they were Panthers fans. By January, after the team made its surprising run to the division crown, 40% identified themselves as Panthers fans. When we polled it again in mid-October when the Panthers were 5-0, the share of North Carolinians who were Panthers fans was up to 51%. And now this week at 12-0, 60% are Panthers fans.

Ha! North Carolinians are already weird when it comes to their sports, thinking there is something drafted in the state Constitution and statutes that make you take an oath to Carolina or Duke even though you graduated Davidson.

You may not have ever set foot on Duke's campus, never even taken a class but your car or truck is filled with more bumper stickers than an alum's. There's no rule or law in this state you have to side with either Carolina or Duke — it just happens they have won more championships and people don't like to be associated with losers.

Look at me — I pull for the Redskins in football (because that was the team we watched in Murfreesboro) the Dodgers in baseball (the first professional game I went to and because I have much respect for Jackie Robinson although he played for them in Brooklyn) the Blues in hockey (I like the flying music note logo) and N.C. State (because I applied to and was accepted to go there before I decided to go to school in Tennessee).

My reasons are valid enough as anyone's and I've never waffled on them even in the lean years as the Redskins are experiencing and the fact I could have jumped to the Hurricanes bandwagon because the St. Louis Blues have never won a Stanley Cup.

So I appreciate the little poll because it makes folks squirm, get defensive and go searching Wikipedia to bring up some little known fact like where did the Panthers first play, who was their first special teams coordinator or what game did they lose their first coin toss. The bandwagon won't know these answers, the old guard probably will even though they have to live with themselves for abandoning their old team just because of that mythical law you must support a team in your home state.

The problem I have is with the old guard because they simply claim they have always supported the Panthers since Day 1, forgetting their original team and the Johnny Come Lately crowd basking in the warm glow of 12-0 which right now means nothing until they have the Lombardi trophy in their hands.

When the Panthers don't even make it to the Super Bowl or get there and lose, I'm sure the bandwagon crowd will be scurrying through their closets looking for that Tom Brady or Marshawn Lynch jersey and saying “I love my Patriots,” or “I've always been a Seahawks fan. Russell Wilson! Go State!”

And if by some crazy chance the Panthers should slip by the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC championship and go to the Super Bowl and win, you better stock up on the jerseys and paraphernalia now because the bandwagon will be on the hunt, that is until the shine washes off and the next 12-0 team comes along. “I've always liked them,” the bandwagon will say. “They've been my favorite since Day 1.”

Me, I'll be the one on Super Bowl day sporting my ratty Redskins sweatshirt because I don't like the bandwagon. Thank goodness for a wasted day Wednesday to bring you this little factoid! — Lance Martin