For Panthers’ Ben Boulware, Thursday’s throwaway exhibition has to be showtime

For fans of most NFL teams, the last preseason game is an afterthought – a low-profile, bench-the-starters, no-one-should-have-to-pay-full-price-for-this glorified-scrimmage type of deal.

For Ben Boulware, though, this game is essential.

Boulware, a rookie linebacker for the Carolina Panthers, knows his fate with the team dangles by a thread that could be snipped at any time between now and Saturday at 4 p.m., when all NFL squads must slice their way from 90 players down to the regular-season limit of 53.

So Carolina’s fourth and final exhibition – against Pittsburgh, kicking off at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Bank of America Stadium – means a lot to Boulware. For the undrafted free agent who was a…