Dr. Rob Heyer, the Carolina Panthers’ lead physician for over 20 years, dies
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Dr. Robert Heyer, the Carolina Panthers’ lead physician for the NFL franchise’s first two decades and a doctor who was beloved by players, coaches, patients and peers across the medical community in Charlotte, has died.
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He passed peacefully at his home in Texas on Aug. 12, according to his family.
Heyer was 78.
Robert Allan Heyer, a native of Dallas, Texas, was an accomplished man with many titles. Among them included being the internist for the Panthers, a moniker he received in 1994, the year before the team’s inaugural season. He never missed a game, home or away, in 25 years of service to the franchise, according to the family. In February 2020, in his final year with the Panthers, the NFL Physicians Society named him the “Outstanding NFL Team Physician of the Year.”
But ask friends and colleagues within the Panthers organization — as well as myriad other spaces in the Carolinas — and you’ll hear how his impact stretches far beyond his accolades.
That impact might be best encapsulated like this:
He never failed to show up — and he was always memorable.
“Dr. Heyer was one of my favorite people in the world,” Jake Delhomme, starting quarterback of the Panthers from 2003 to 2009, told The Charlotte Observer. “He was instrumental in my life, as were all the doctors on staff during my years there. I know they were doctors, but they felt like family.
“I never called him Dr. Rob, like some people did. I just called him ‘The Good Doctor.’ And that’s what he was. He was brilliant. He was funny. And he cared so deeply about us.”
That care was also evident to Heyer’s family.
“He truly got more from his patients than they got from him,” Caroline Heyer, Robert’s wife of 56 years, said in a statement to The Charlotte Observer. “He loved their stories, laughing with them, seeing them get better. That’s what drove him and made him happy.”
Heyer first moved to Charlotte in 1978, five years after earning his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. The Queen City is where he joined the Charlotte Medical Clinic, specializing in Pulmonary Disease and Internal Medicine.
According to his family, he’d later join the teaching staff at Carolinas Medical Center, and he spent years developing a reputation for having an intense commitment to his patients and exceptional clinical judgment — and having many of his patients turn into lifelong friends.
He composed quite the CV while in Charlotte. He served as President of the NC Thoracic Society, as well as Chief of Pulmonology and Respiratory Therapy at CMC. He also served on the board of Charlotte Country Day School.
His work with the Panthers also didn’t completely capture his time in the NFL. He served as the NFL Physicians Society’s president for a stint. Upon retirement — which arrived in 2020, after over 40 years of working in the field — Heyer had also served on several medical committees connected to the NFL; that included the league’s Musculoskeletal Committee, the General Medical Committee and the Cardiovascular Health Research Committee, according to his biography found on the NFL’s Player Health & Safety webpage.
Heyer was ultimately succeeded as the Panthers’ internist by Dr. Nancy Gritter in September 2018. She had worked with the Panthers since 2005, and upon her promotion, she became the first woman to serve in the role as lead internist for an NFL organization. Heyer stayed on as a team physician for two more years before retiring.
Near the time of his retirement, he was given the honor of serving as the Panthers’ “Keep Pounding” drummer before a game. In his final game in 2020, in the postgame locker room, players awarded him with the game ball; he accepted it wearing a shirt and tie, thin-rimmed glasses, a Panthers hat and a smile.
After retirement, he moved back to his Dallas hometown to be closer to his family.
“I’m sad to hear that,” long snapper JJ Jansen told The Charlotte Observer about Heyer’s death. Jansen joined the Panthers in 2009 and remains the longest-serving player in the franchise’s history. “Outstanding man. Good friend. Good teammate in the way that doctors are fully ingrained in the team. I think of Dr. Gritter — they obviously worked a long time together. Team doctors are as much part of your own family. It’s really special inside the building.”
Jansen added: “Life well-lived. And tremendously impactful in the Panthers’ history.”
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It’s impossible to disentangle Heyer from Panthers history. His presence, though often just outside the spotlight, was felt everywhere.
He was the lead doctor for Jon Richardson, the president of Panthers Stadium LLC from 1996 to 2009 and the son of founding owner Jerry Richardson. Jon died of cancer in 2013, and in his obituary, the Richardson family said that Heyer provided “excellent and compassionate care” for 13 years.
Heyer also worked closely with several Panthers players through the years, from Pro Football Hall of Famers Sam Mills and Julius Peppers and Luke Kuechly all the way down the lineup. That also included employees in ticket sales, on the PR staff — everyone.
As Mary Jo Little, who worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Dr. Heyer as his nurse the final 10 years of his career, recalled: “He used to say, ‘Well, if their grandmother is here, and she’s not feeling well, it can affect the way that player is going to play his game that day. So if we need to see Grandma, we’re going to see Grandma.’”
And he wouldn’t change his level of care, whether he was treating Cam Newton or someone who never appeared in the newspaper.
“He would sit and talk to his patients for a good 30 minutes to an hour before he even started the exam because he would learn so much about them,” Little said. “He just thought you should know your patient, you should know their families, you should know their likes and their dislikes, because once you know all that and how they live their life, then you know how to treat them the most effectively.
“They always knew they had him. Once you became his patient, you were covered. He would show up whenever. You never felt like a number or ‘go into the waiting room.’ You could call his cell, or you could call my cell, and I’d get Dr. Heyer. And he was there.”
Little first worked with Dr. Heyer in the Intensive Care Unit in CMC. She said he asked her to work with him after his nurse of 30 years, Carol Dickinson, retired. And from the jump, he was a teacher — and a teammate, valuing everyone’s opinions, everyone’s time, Little said.
As devoted he was to his work, he was “even more devoted to his family who he loved without measure and shared a full life,” according to his family.
Heyer, born to late Dr. Howard Heyer and the late Mayvis Heyer, is survived by his wife, Caroline; his children, Ashley and Robert; and his grandchildren, Caroline Casey, William Casey, Henry Heyer and Harrison Heyer. His elder brother John Heyer of McKinney, Texas, survives him, too.
A private family service will be held in Dallas at a future date, the family said. To celebrate his life and legacy, memorial contributions may be directed to the Robert A. Heyer, MD Pulmonary Fund, which is meant to advance educational efforts and programs and to increase overall patient care at the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division at Atrium Health.
“Everybody can say a doctor was smart, they were brilliant at what they did, and that they even love football,” Little said. “But everybody follows the same kind of sentiment: I’m better off because I knew Rob Heyer. He made me a better person. Not just in the way he cared for the family, or for the patient.
“When you knew Rob Heyer, whether it be medical or if you just had something going on in your personal life, you had somebody who was willing to fight for you. He was going to be by your side, and that’s just who Dr. Heyer was.”
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