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 →

Dana Stubblefield proved to be great value for the 26th pick in the 1993 NFL Draft.

The San Francisco 49ers have two first-round picks in the upcoming NFL Draft. With two picks, how could you go wrong? Well, in the last twenty years, the 49ers have had two first-round picks five times (and one year with no first round pick at all) with varying degrees of success. Here is a look back at the last twenty years of 49er first-round selections.

1990     No. 25     Dexter Carter                RB     Florida State

Does anyone else remember Dexter “Fumble” Carter? He was used mostly as a returner and never managed to crack the starting lineup as a running back. He debuted in San Francisco with eight fumbles his first season. Dexter did manage to stick around the NFL for seven years and a total of 33 fumbles. Grade D

1991     No. 25     Ted Washington        DT     University of Louisville

This is a tough one to call. Washington has been described as the premier nose tackle of his era, yet the 49ers let him go after three seasons for a fifth-round draft selection. Perhaps they didn’t see him progressing as much as they liked, or they thought he was better suited as a true nose tackle in a 3-4 scheme and were unwilling to abandon the 4-3 that they ran at the time. Grade C+

1992     No. 18     Dana Hall                DB     University of Washington

Another three-year wonder, Hall just plain stunk. Do you smell toast? Grade D

1993     No. 26     Dana Stubblefield      DT     University of Kansas

The 49ers made amends for trading Washington as Stubblefield was named Defensive Rookie of the Year on his way to a long, decorated career in San Fran. Grade A
Read the rest of this entry →