CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- There was a time when Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton might have found something to whine about following an embarrassing loss like Thursday's 52-21 setback in Pittsburgh.
Instead, in his first news conference since the prime-time debacle at Heinz Field, Newton talked about wine.
"Just tried to relax, man," Newton said on Wednesday when asked what he did during the weekend break before the Panthers (6-3) began preparing for Sunday's 1 p.m. ET game in Detroit (3-6). "A lot of cigar smoking, wine drinking, milk feeding. It was cool. Daddy got to get back to work. Chosen (2-year-old son) was looking at me sideways, like, 'Bro. You lost bad. Got a $50 spot put up on you. Can't let that keep happening.'
"Hopefully, when I go see him on Monday or Tuesday, or if he sees me, we'll have another discussion."
But the discussion after this comment was on Newton's latest hobby -- wine, "something I really enjoy."
"I'm on sauvignon blanc right now," said Newton, who despite the Pittsburgh loss is off to the best start of his NFL career statistically with 17 touchdown passes to only five interceptions. "A really light wine and a good mild smoke."
We've known for years that the 2015 NFL MVP loves cigars, because he posted pictures on social media of him smoking them. His affinity for wine is new, even though he's not posting pictures of that -- yet.
"[Early in my career] I don't know if I would have posted smoking cigars," Newton said. "Now it's like, 'Shssst. I don't care.' I'm 29 years old. You know I ain't eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and animal crackers at night. It is what it is."
Newton even revealed the Panthers have their own sommelier, a steward of wine, in team feeding supervisor Rudy Patino. (Yes, his title is team feeding supervisor).
OK, Patino officially is not the team sommelier. But he is a certified sommelier.
"He's the real MVP," Newton said. "He was an MVP for a holiday bowl a couple of years ago. He's probably one of the nicest people I've come across."
Newton also revealed he might one day like to be a sommelier.
"I feel if I had a gift, a hidden talent outside of playing an instrument, I would want to be a sommelier," he said. "Like nose, senses that you have ... being able to distinctively tell what type of wine it is, where it's from and everything about the wine by just the taste and look and pretty much the feel of the wine.
"It was pretty cool to come across a person on a day-to-day basis that knows what they're talking about."
Newton admits he's "terrible" at distinguishing wines and that without his cell phone camera he would be lost.
"If I come across a good taste, I'm quick to take pictures of it," he said. "I'm one of those, 'Hey, excuse me. Have you seen this wine here?' Then it has this French word on it that I can't pronounce. I'm not going to try.
"They're, 'Ah, we don't sell that.' I go, 'Do you have anything kind of like it?'"
Newton didn't rule out one day owning a vineyard like other athletes such as former NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon, NHL legend Wayne Gretzky and NBA star Dwayne Wade, who recently launched his own label.
"So many people are into it," Newton said. "It is relaxing. It is something that kind of warms the soul, so to speak, after a very rigorous day as you would imagine I could have at some time."
Thursday's loss in which Newton's early pick-six opened the floodgates for the rout was one of those times.
This all led to the question of what Newton would name the wine or vineyard if he ever gets to that point. The answer by someone who refers to himself as "Ace Boogie" didn't come as a surprise.
"The Boogie Down. Going to boogie down your esophagus," he said.
Newton paused, laughed and added, "Anything else about the Detroit Lions besides 'Boogie Down?'"