Sports Then and Now

The Carolina Panthers selected Cam Newton with the first pick in the 2011 NFL Draft.

A bizarre and rapid rise from obscurity to super stardom has taken an interesting turn with the selection of Cam Newton as the first pick in the 2011 NFL Draft by the Carolina Panthers.

The selection means that the Panthers, who were 2-14 a year ago, are putting their future in the hands of a quarterback who has shown tremendous potential, but has just one season of experience as a starter at a big-time college.

Interestingly, this marks the first time since the initial draft for the franchise in 1995 that they have used a first round pick on a quarterback.

They certainly are hoping that this choice has better long term results than when they chose Kerry Collins with the fifth overall pick in the 1995 draft.

While Collins led the Panthers to the NFC Championship Game in just his second season in the league, by 1998 he was gone following a series of incidents that illustrated that Collins wasn’t mature enough to be the face of a football team when he joined the Panthers.

Panther fans are hopeful that history won’t repeat itself with Newton, a young man for which there are similar concerns about whether he has the discipline and maturity to be the face of an NFL franchise. Read the rest of this entry →

First of all, let me just say how disappointed I am that Adam Joshua did not invite me to his bachelor party, especially considering that Adam’s bachelor party was down in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Kind of like rubbing salt in an open wound as I sit here in Pennsylvania shoveling myself and various other people out from under a record breaking 30 plus inches of snow.

OK, enough about me and more on Adam’s wife to be Heather, who by the way is the kind of young lady that every young blooded American boy would love to bring home to mom of course it doesn’t hurt that Adam Joshua; A.J. if you will, is also cut from that same All-American boy next door fabric.

Yes that’s right, former Eagles Quarterback A.J. (Adam Joshua) Feeley and his better half soccer star (Philadelphia Independence) Heather Mitts, will exchange wedding vows today (Feb 13) in Cabo San Lucas Mexico, and officially consummate their seven year, on again off again relationship.

Mitts is a two-time Olympic Gold-medalist as a member of the United States Women’s National Team for the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics who has represented the U.S in over 100 competitive matches. She was also a member of the US team who finished second in the 2006 Algarve Cup.

Mitts is also known as much for her looks as her athletic ability. In 2001, Heather was voted by Playboy Online, as the sexiest player in the former Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA). Read the rest of this entry →