CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Carolina Panthers equipment manager Jackie Miles packed six Super Bowl game-day jerseys for quarterback Cam Newton.
Second on the team?
Middle linebacker Luke Kuechly with five.
Miles doesn't expect Newton to wear all six. Three will be set aside for members of the organization who might need a jersey for a charity event, as often occurs during Super Bowl week.
Three are set aside for game day, and Newton will only use all three if there's rain.
"If we're rained on pregame, we'd switch them after pregame for the first half," Miles said Friday. "And then if it rained in the first half we’d switch them at halftime for the second half."
Miles admittedly was disappointed the jerseys are black. The Panthers have a career record of 5-0 in the playoffs at home in white and 0-2 in the black.
As the designated home team, the AFC champion Denver Broncos had the option. They chose white.
"They wore their colors all in their home playoff games," Miles said of Denver. "Our white thing is a home superstition. It’s kind of weird they're preventing us from wearing white."
It was weird until Miles was reminded the Broncos are 0-4 in Super Bowls wearing orange jerseys. He still was disappointed.
"The last two [playoff games] in black we got our butts kicked," he quipped.
Miles has had a busy week. It began with getting a truckload of equipment -- blocking sleds, weights, etc. -- out Tuesday for the cross-country drive. The truck is expected to arrive Saturday. The rest will be shipped on the chartered plane that leaves Sunday.
Even though the game is in Santa Clara, California, Miles packed winter wear and raincoats. The equipment manager for the San Francisco 49ers "told me it rains every two out of three days."
"I have a winter trunk packed, too," Miles said. "We're prepared. We're not going to be packed for Minnesota cold, but I have the nice baseball jackets packed."