Despite the long-standing relationship, though, Jessup still couldn’t quite believe what was being requested. Blow up 17 items, representing the Panthers upcoming 2026 games? You can train as much as you want, but like football once the game kicks-off and instinct kicks in, this assignment was unique.

“We weren’t sure it was for real at first because we’ve never had anybody come out here and ask us if we would blow stuff up for them intentionally,” he laughed. “And then once we figured out it was real, of course, we’re like, yeah, absolutely.

“Obviously, we’re very well versed in handling explosives and all that, but again, not knowing how we’re going to blow up a pirate ship, how we’re going to blow up a kiddy car with a lion in it? Do we know how much to use, what type of explosives? So we were kind of learning on the fly as well, so it was kind of neat to mix all that together.”