Cam Newton isn’t concerned with the past

To Cam Newton, NFL history is a little like ancient history -- not terribly relevant to what he’s doing in the league right now.

Before setting the single-season mark for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback last Sunday with a total of 13, Newton was asked about Steve Grogan, the guy whose record he would break.

“Who’s that?” Newton asked.

Apprised that Grogan was a New England quarterback in the 1970s and that he rushed for 12 touchdowns in 1976, Newton confessed to drawing a blank.

“Don’t know anything about him,” he said.

That didn’t surprise Grogan, who now owns a sporting-goods store in Massachusetts.

“The young players today don’t know much about the history of the game,” Grogan told the Boston Globe. “I don’t want to sound like an old guy, but we used to read books about the guys that came before us and how the game was played.

“The kids nowadays, if it’s not on a video game, they don’t know anything about the past.”

Now, Newton is nearing another milestone. With 216 yards Sunday against Atlanta, the Panthers signal-caller can surpass Matt Ryan and Sam Bradford and move into second place on the all-time list for most passing yards by a rookie in league history. Newton has 3,297 through 13 games, and the record belongs to Peyton Manning, who threw for 3,739 in 1998.

The most passing yards by a rookie quarterback in NFL history:

QUARTERBACK TEAM SEASON YARDS
Peyton Manning Indianapolis 1998 3,739
Sam Bradford St. Louis 2010 3,512
Matt Ryan Atlanta 2008 3,440
Cam Newton Carolina 2011 3,297*
Joe Flacco Baltimore 2008 2,971
*-- through Week 13

Good hands people New England’s Wes Welker needs just seven receptions to join Marvin Harrison and Jerry Rice as the only receivers to have four seasons with at least 100 receptions.

The players to record four 100-reception seasons in NFL history:

PLAYER SEASONS WITH 100 RECEPTIONS
Marvin Harrison 4 (115, 102, 109, 143)
Jerry Rice 4 (100, 112, 122, 108)
Wes Welker 3 (112, 111, 123)
*-- source: NFL

Getting defensive

In the last four weeks, the Detroit Lions have given up 37, 35, 27 and 31 points, losing three of those four games. So it’s not surprising defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham is a little unhappy with what TV analysts are saying about his fast-sinking team.

This week, he called out those talking heads, challenging them to criticize him to his face.

“Here’s the issue for me,” Cunningham said, according to the Detroit News. “There are some ex-coaches on television, in the media, making statements. Why don’t they come and talk to me about it?

“Tell them to face me and come and talk about it. Don’t tell me how to coach. They were in high school and maybe not even born when I started in this business. I think I know a little about it.

“I’ll challenge any coach to face me up in a room, one on one, put the tape on and tell me how to coach football.

“For those guys to tell Jim Schwartz how to coach and to tell me how to coach -- good luck. They’re not coaching; they’re on TV. I wonder why they are on TV and we’re still standing here coaching?”

sam.farmer@latimes.com