CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Alberto Hernandez knew it was somebody important when the white Rolls-Royce pulled up in front of the Nick Fouquet Hat Maker shop in Venice, California.
“I was already closing," Hernandez recalled. “I thought, ‘That’s a beautiful car.’ Then I see him coming out of it and I went, ‘Whoa! This guy is someone.’
“It was him -- Cam Newton."
This is where the NFL MVP’s fondness for hats turned into a passion. This is where the Carolina Panthers’ one-of-a-kind quarterback decided he needed a one-of-a-kind hat to make a statement off the field after every game, the way he often makes one on it.