Beason’s got Cam’s back!

Jon Beason has Cam Newton;s back!

If you don’t follow NFL football regularly, you may not know Carolina Panthers three-time Pro Bowl linebacker Jon Beason, but you should after he came to the defense of young quarterback Cam Newton this past week.

Beason laid into San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith for his foolish dig at Newton after the mediocre Smith, who had never won more than seven games in a single season before 2011, said passing yards and statistics like Newton’s aren’t important, just victories.

"I could absolutely care less on yards per game," Smith told a group of reporters. "I think that is a totally overblown stat because if you're losing games in the second half, guess what, you're like the Carolina Panthers and you're going no-huddle the entire second half. Yeah, Cam Newton threw for a lot of 300-yard games. That's great. You're not winning, though."

Well, Beason responded via Twitter, writing, "Alex smith, don't hate on Cam (because) your stats would've gotten u cut if Peyton decided to come 2 San Fran. Truth b told. That's after a 13-3 yr."

While Beason’s comments on Smith were 100 percent true, what he did leave unsaid was the fact that Smith is as close to a ‘bust’ as it gets for a former No. 1 overall draft pick – and didn’t win last season because of his play. The Niners went 13-3 in 2011 mostly because of their head coach, the team’s now-vaunted defense – and the fact that Jim Harbaugh just asked Smith to ‘manage’ the game, not actually try and win it.

Newton had a record-setting rookie campaign and finished with more yards, touchdowns and 300-yard passing games than Smith, Newton also went to the Pro Bowl while Smith stayed home.