I was at my desk on Tuesday, November 9, 2014 at around 12:30 pm when the news, via The Charlotte Observer, flashed across my twitter feed that Cam Newton was injured in a car accident.  It just so happened that I was working Uptown and take the same road he was on to get to my workouts after work a few days a week. I didn't know how bad the accident was until I started seeing pictures from sports writer Jonathan Jones. I must admit, I got a little teary eyed when I saw this pic: My Capricorn pessimism had me thinking the worst. The word coming in said that Newton was struck by a driver, who either ran a redlight or a stop sign, causing Newton's Dodge truck to flip four times. It came to rest near the railing on the overpass of I277. From all accounts the other driver was okay and told one of the reporters that Newton was in the overturned truck. Thank God that my pessimism wasn't part of God's plan. Reporter, Jonathan Jones was immediately at the scene, since the Charl

THIS POST IS A BIT RANDOM AND FLUID... One day, I was talking to my younger sister who informed me that our great grandfather had fought in the military...WWI to be exact. Quite a while ago she'd discovered it as she compiled a family tree. It must have been when I was away in college. This particular night, a couple of weeks ago, she was on Ancestry.com looking deeply into our roots. Apparently, we have quite a deep history of military involvement in our lineage. I wasn't quite aware of it. I knew one of my gramps was in the military, but didn't know it extended to both sides of my family. Anyway...it made me think about a lot of things I've examined over the years...particularly race relations and the plight of minorities in this country. I studied African and African American history in college, but even before then I dug deeply into our roots...starting as a six year old. However, even then, I looked at it from an intellectual standpoint. It was real

Thomas Davis #58 for the Carolina Panthers Thanksgiving week,  +Denada Jackson  invited me to cover the Thomas Davis Defending Dreams Foundation ("TDDDF") Dinner of Hope for my new writing gig at AXS.com . Davis, who plays for the Carolina Panthers, and his wife Kelly run TDDDF  and hosted the dinner for the women and children of the Salvation Army Center of Hope. Table setting at Lola's  I've volunteered with different groups at the Center of Hope for several years now, and love the fact that Davis chose to use his foundation to work with them. Many of the residents are escaping dire situations in their home lives...and the children are caught in the middle. TDDDF shield Davis's teammates showed up to help out. They remind me of dudes I grew up with, having pretty much always been around athletes. With all that has gone on in the media with NFL players and a lot of negativity, I was happy to show this side. A lot of people really feel that