Cam Newton writes a poem (yes I am serious)

A statue of Cam Newton (photos here) was unveiled today at Auburn, along with statues of Auburn's two other Heisman Trophy winners (Pat Sullivan and Bo Jackson).

Newton showed up looking resplendent as usual. But here was the unusual thing -- he recited a poem that he wrote himself (he stressed that he wrote it himself several times, and I think he did. It sounds like he talks).

You can listen to Newton read the text at in this al.com video or you can read it below (it's better when he reads it -- Newton naturally knows how to work a crowd).

Newton's poem (which apparently was untitled, but is completely about his time at Auburn and references, among other things, a one-point victory over Alabama. The wise man he refers to is Auburn coach Gene Chizik):

365 days, that was my tenure,

But for some strange reason it felt like I've always been here.



All the blood, sweat and tears it took to get this

I'll always honor and cherish this.



My road to the top had a couple of pit stops

But during my time at Auburn, the love of the Auburn family would not let my morale drop.



Greatness was what I strived for and greatness is what I got

The mentality of the Auburn man took me to the top.



Some people will never understand the feeling of what it means to be an Auburn man

But I'm lucky enough to be able to raise my right hand and be able to say “I can.”



My time at Auburn, I don't know if it could have been any better--

Man, was it great.

We won an SEC title, a national championship

And, oh yeah, we beat that team, 27-28.



As a wise man once said, “This place,” as in Auburn, “was great way before you were thought of,”

And this place is where I will always love


So as I share this day with two of Auburn's beloved

I want to end by saying “War Eagle” and “I believe in Auburn and love it.”

Come on D Wade -- no one should be paid to play in Olympics

I really like the Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade as a player and as a person, almost all of the time. One of the exceptions, however, came this week when Wade opined that NBA players in the Olympics should get paid.

After that comment made the rounds, Wade then backtracked. He issued a statement saying players shouldn't get paid after all.

I doubt Wade changed his mind on that so quickly -- more likely he had it "changed" for him by someone.

But to think that NBA players who make tens of millions should get more money for the privilege of representing their country -- that was one of the more tone-deaf remarks any NBA athlete has made in years.

It also was an unintentional insult to all of the thousands of Olympic athletes who have given up an inordinate amount of time for many years to pursue their own dreams, with no chance at an eight-figure contract because they don't happen to be great at a sport that has a well-organized pro league. Those athletes live on the verge of poverty, just hoping to make the team.

Now I'm not saying that the athletes should have to pay their way to London for the 2012 Games -- that's what the U.S. Olympic Committee is for. Their expenses should be taken care of, and their gear and their medical needs. But that's it. if you want to give them a performance-based bonus for a gold medal, I'm OK with that.

But the Olympics shouldn't be considered a job. It's an adventure, and a privilege.

Two other Olympic notes:

-- The U.S. whitewater Olympic Trials at the excellent U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte concludes Saturday night (it runs from 3-7 p.m. Saturday and is free and open to the public -- parking is $5). I'm writing about Caroline Queen, one of the best women's kayakers in America and a Davidson sophomore, for Saturday's newspaper. (UPDATE: Here's a link to the column).

-- Greco-Roman wrestler Dremiel Byers, who grew up in Kings Mountain and now lives in Colorado Springs, Colo., has a good shot at making the Olympics again. Byers was on the team in 2008 but didn't medal. He is the No.1 seed in the heavyweight division of the wrestling Olympic Trials, which conclude April 21st.

Arkansas reaps what it sows with Bobby Petrino

I totally agree with Arkansas's decision to fire head coach Bobby Petrino, who hired his 25-year-old mistress to work for the Arkansas football program, wrecked his motorcycle with her riding on the back and then tried to hide her involvement in the accident from both the public and his bosses. (It also came out Tuesday that Petrino once gave her $20,000 -- a "gift," apparently, from the married father of four. This was before he hired her).

But in this case, the Razorbacks cannot pat themselves on the back for taking the high moral ground, for they have reaped what they have sown. Petrino is a bad seed, a vagabond who watches out for himself No.1, No.2 and No.3. And they should have known that when the hired him.

You may remember Petrino's very brief stint as the Atlanta Falcons' head coach in 2007. He quit -- to go to Arkansas, which was offering him a pile of money -- before the season was over. Rather than tell the players in person, he left them each the same 78-word note in their locker, saying something about how much he "respected" them. They didn't respect him after that -- they torched him publicly, and rightfully so.

Petrino was the human version of tbe Baltimore Colts, fleeing in the dead of night to somewhere else.

Was that out of character? Not really. Take this line from the AP story about Petrino's firing Tuesday: "He infamously met with Auburn officials in 2003 to talk about taking the Tigers' head coaching job while Tommy Tuberville still had it."

This is a man who should be radioactive to anyone who cares about integrity. He really shouldn't ever get another head-coaching job in the NFL or in college. I'm not a big fan of Jim Rome, but he had a great tweet the other day about this situation, saying something like Petrino left "half of his face and all of his cred" on that road in Arkansas when he wrecked his bike.

But guess what? I bet he does. There will be a rehabilitation period, certainly. But someone, somewhere, in a few years will say, "Hey, this guy went 21-5 his last two years at Arkansas. And he had that trouble, yes, but he did say he was sorry!"

And then that program will walk down the same road that Arkansas has.

No, Petrino didn't kill anyone. Far worse things are done every day. But a leader of men?

He's not fit to be one.

Steve Smith extension an excellent move by Panthers

Very good news today on the Carolina Panther front: Steve Smith has agreed to a three-year contract extension that will keep him as a Panther through the 2015 season. There is also an option year for 2016.

Smith, who will turn 33 in May, had a career-rejuvenating Pro Bowl season in 2011 with Cam Newton throwing him the ball, catching 1394 yards worth of passes (the third-highest of his 11-year NFL career -- see his career stats here).

As I've written before, Smith is the best player the Panthers have ever employed in my opinion -- some might give the nod to Julius Peppers, but to me No.89 has stuck around longer, affected more games in a positive way and ultimately contributed more (he has scored 67 career TDs, more than any other Panther). Now Newton may ultimately surpass him, but that is a discussion for about 5-10 years from now.

Anyway, this contract extension is not a huge surprise (the Panthers have now confirmed the deal, first reported by Pro Football Weekly, and Smith will talk to the media at 3 p.m. today).

Smith has talked about wanting to finish his career as a Panther, and the Panthers have salary-cap issues and needed to restructure Smith's contract to avoid that $7.75-million base salary hit (and $10.7M cap hit) in 2012. The only way to do that and keep Smith on the team was a contract extension since this was the final year of his most recent contract.

We all know Smith has had his problems off the field, but as an observer of Smith for the past 11 seasons since Carolina took him in the third round in the 2001 draft, I can also tell you he has matured and he tries so much harder to be good at his job than so many professional athletes do. The Panthers needed to do this.

The author of the best play in Panther history (the 69-yard reception to win the double-OT playoff game at St. Louis) and the best game in Panther history (that stunning 218-yard receiving game in the playoffs at Chicago) doesn't ever need to play anywhere else. Smith should be a throwback, one of those players who start and end their career at the same place -- in Carolina. This was a win-win for both sides. Even in the worst of times, I've never advocated cutting or trading Smith -- he's been too valuable for too long, and there is still some tread on those tires. All he needed was a good quarterback to show that.

One additional plus: the two most important receivers to Newton right now are Smith and tight end Greg Olsen. They are both now signed through the 2015 season.

Could Cam Newton turn Madden 13 cover down? No

OK, I'm not a big "gamer." I don't play John Madden's popular NFL games, although a couple of my kids do and so I'm familiar with them and own a copy for the Wii. I haven't paid a whole lot of attention the "Madden Curse" -- the jinx that apparently strikes most NFL players when they are put on the cover the following season.

But I keep getting this question from readers and so will answer it here -- Could Panther QB Cam Newton turn down the Madden cover if he wanted to?

The answer, apparently, is "No."

Newton, currently in the quarterfinals of fan voting and "playing" Arizona's Larry Fitzgerald this week, has already agreed like the rest of the quarterfinalists to have his name and likeness on the cover if he wins, according to a PR person working for EA Sports whom I directed this question to. The players have all "agreed to participate in the competition and, if selected by the fans, will appear on the cover of Madden NFL 13," spokesperson Julie Foster of EA Sports Communications says via email.

The cover winner, incidentally, will be revealed on ESPN's SportsNation at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 25th and then immediately "will proceed to a photo shoot" for the cover, according to EA.

A short version of the curse's victims include Michael Vick, Garrison Hearst, Shaun Alexander, Donovan McNabb, Brett Favre and (last year) Peyton Hillis -- all of whom either had a significant injury or a significant downturn in their performance the year after they made the cover. Hillis, in fact, said in December 2011 after his fortunes in Cleveland dropped so precipitously:

"Things didn't work in my favor this year. There's a few things that happened this year that made me believe in curses. Ain't no doubt about it."

As for Newton, I imagine we'll get to see whether the curse is valid or not in 2012. Although I've heard from a number of Panther fans voting against Cam purely for superstitious purposes, his popularity is pretty strong nationwide and he's the No.1 seed among the eight remaining players (the other six are Rob Gronkowski, Aaron Rodgers, Calvin Johnson, Ray Rice, Patrick Willis and Victor Cruz). In his first two matchups, Newton received more than 80 percent of the vote.

One note about both the "Madden Curse" and the "Sports Illustrated cover jinx," which has a very similar them: Players who make the cover of either are at the peak of their profession. There is, generally, nowhere to go but down. So a regression makes some sort of sense. Still, it's something fun to talk about in the run-up to the NFL draft.

On DT, whitewater, Bubba and Panthers

A handful of interesting sports-related links and other stuff for your Monday morning:

-- It was 34 years ago today when perhaps the most sensational single-season NBA scoring race ever came to an end. David Thompson barely trailed George Gervin going into the final day of the season. With his teammates feeding him the ball constantly, DT scored 73 points in an afternoon game. But Gervin's teammates did the same thing that night, and "Ice" scored 63 -- just enough to retain his lead.

Thompson, the former N.C. State star who now lives in Charlotte, told me once that while his amazing jumping ability was God-given, he also worked on it constantly as a youth.

-- If you haven't seen it yet, The Observer's Ron Green Jr's story on Bubba Watson's win in the Masters Sunday is really worth a read. Ron is one of the best golf writers in America.

-- I wrote a story today about David Hepp, a whitewater canoeist who at age 38 has come out of retirement with the hope of finally making an Olympic team. Four years before, I first met Hepp when I did a first-person story on how it really felt to go down the competition channel at the U.S. National Whitewater Center. Hepp, then retired, was my guide. It was a blast, even though we crashed.

-- My second story today was a column about the Bobcats, who are on an 11-game losing streak with 12 games to play in this lost season. A depressing subject, to be sure.

-- The NFL regular-season schedule will be announced soon, and I expect the Panthers to have 1-2 prime-time games given their higher, Cam Newton-enhanced profile. Among the possibilities: The Panthers vs. Washington (which might be starting RGIII by then), the Panthers vs. Denver (Peyton Manning and John Fox come to Charlotte) or either Panther game vs. New Orleans.

-- If you need an NFL draft fix, the excellent Peter King of Sports Illustrated opens his always good "Monday Morning Quarterback" column with a few thousand words on the big event that starts Thursday, April 26th.

Will the Bobcats win another game this season?

As I watched the Charlotte Bobcats in person for the first time in awhile Saturday night while they lost to the Atlanta Hawks by 20 points, I was struck by how far, far, far away the Bobcats are from being a legitimately good NBA team.

I know that is no news to you, if you follow the Bobcats even casually. But the carnage looks even worse in person. The Bobcats (7-47) are the NBA's worst team by a long three-point shot, and there's a realistic chance they won't win another game in this abbreviated, 66-game NBA regular season. That would mean the current losing streak of 11 would end up at a season-ending 23.

Now granted, there's not much of a chance of that.

The Bobcats have an even dozen games left, and Washington (the NBA's second-worst team, ahead of only Charlotte in the current NBA standings) is on the schedule twice, including Monday at home. The Bobcats are probably going to go 1-11 or 2-10 in that final 12-game stretch, maybe even 3-9, which will mean their final record will wind up around 9-57, give or take a game or two.

Awful, isn't it? The team's problems are so numerous that I won't go into them all here, but suffice it to say they aren't very good on offense or defense, they don't have nearly enough strong players and they also aren't entertaining. When the biggest cheer of the night from the "attendance" of 14,715 (there appeared to be about half that actually in the stands) is for the acrobatic dunkers who use a mini-trampoline during a timeout to entertain the crowd, you're in trouble.

Bobcats owner Michael Jordan wasn't in his customary courtside seat Saturday night, but he's got a lot of work to do here. Anthony Davis won't solve this problem if the Bobcats are able to win him in the NBA lottery. No single player will. The Bobcats are about three very good players short of being as good as, say, Atlanta, which is around a No.5 seed in the Eastern Conference.

It's saying something that this is the worst Bobcats' team in franchise history -- the Bobcats, after all, have never won a playoff game and have only made the playoffs once -- but there's no doubt that it is. This season absolutely can't end fast enough.