Just walked out of the courtroom in downtown Charlotte.

   Carolina Panthers second-year wide receiver Dwyane Jarrett pleaded guilty on Monday to a charge of driving while impaired. He was given a 30-day suspended sentence, ordered to pay $420 in fines and complete 24 hours of community service.

   Jarrett was arrested in Mint Hill in March after recording a blood alcohol level of 0.12.

   Jarrett will enter Stage 1 of the NFL's substance abuse program but it not likely to be suspended.

   "I am happy to get it over with," Jarrett said. "I've been waiting  for this trial. This is a thing that happened and you learn from your mistakes. Things have been going on a positive note (with the Panthers) besides this. I'm looking forward to better things to happen."

  The charge of running a red light was dropped.

   The Carolina Panthers on Tuesday claimed center Pat Ross off waivers from the Indianapolis Colts and released tackle Eric Tunney, the team announced.

   Ross, an undrafted free agent in 2006 out of Boston College, has been on the practice squads in New England, Seattle and Indianapolis, but has yet to play in a regular season game. Right now he would be Carolina's third-string center at best.

   The Panthers roster stands at 89, which means they have nine players to cut once they sign their draft picks.

   --Although this is clearly the dead time in the NFL year, we at Carolina Growl know you're still interested in reading about the Panthers. So we will continue to give you some Panthers stories you can sink your teeth to hold you over until we really get going when players report to Wofford College for training camp on July 25.

   Once again, I'll be following the Panthers throughout training camp as well as covering all regular season games -- home and away. I've covered every game in franchise history (preseason, regular season and postseason) and I'm pleased to inform our readers we will continue to cover the team both home and away this year.

   We remain committed to giving our readers the absolute best and most comprehensive Panthers coverage. We are looking forward to a great season!

Final thoughts following Thursday’s final OTA practice:

   --Coach John Fox is anxious to have rookie running back Jonathan Stewart back at practice. Stewart isn’t allowed around the facility until the University of Oregon finishes its final exams. Oregon is one of the few schools around the country that works on the quarter grading system.

   “He’s a sharp guy and I like this demeanor and his football character,” Fox said of the team’s first-round draft pick. “I like what I saw from his college tape. He just has to get healthy."

   Fox said he expects Stewart will be ready to go in training camp.

   "He’s out of his boot and he’s one schedule. He will be coming here shortly and being doing rehab with our medical people and they are telling me he will be ready for July 25 (the start of training camp).”

   Panthers coach John Fox applauded Michael Strahan, whom he spent time coaching with the New York Giants, for an oustanding career. Strahan officially announced his retirement from the Giants just months after winning his first Super Bowl ring.

   "It's kind of nice when you have that world championship ring," Fox said. "Michael has played a lot of good years and he had some left. I haven't talked to him about it yet, but I'm sure he put a lot of thought into it. I think he was close (to retiring) last year. But I'm happy for him. He's had a great year. I'm proud for him."

   --Running back LaBrandon Toefield remains out with an abdominal strain.

   --Someone asked me for another update on Jake Delhomme the other day. All I can tell you is what I've said before: The man's arm looks stronger than it has ever looked in the six years I've covered him. He's throwing the ball with great velocity and confidence.

   If he's not 100 percent, he has to be pretty close.

   And he's throwing all sorts of passes -- short outs, crossing routes, flys, deep post routes, etc... That's good news for Panthers fans.

   --This big story during OTSa has been the heat with temperatures approaching 100 degrees even in the morning.

   "Your body's about climatizing, and probably the more you can expose yourself to that heat and humidity, even though we're not in pads yet, I think this helps your body get more used to it," coach John Fox said Tuesday. "So I really think it's been kind of a bonus for us as we prepare for Spartanburg."

   --Offensive tackle Jordan Gross talked a little about rookie offensive tackle Jeff Otah on Tuesday.

   "He's just a huge guy that can move, and I don't think you can find that every day," Gross said. "I came in as a rookie and played the same position (right tackle) and he's got a lot to learn and a long way to go, but he's definitely more than capable. I think he can be a really good player for us. And the thing I'm excited about is we've got a lot of youth and talent now; hopefully we can have the same lineup for a few years in a row."

   We all knew former Carolina Panthers former first-round draft pick Jason Peter was pretty messed up, but his new autobiography "Hero of the Underground" (due out in July, $24.95) describes in detail just how Peter ended up in drug rehab six or seven times following his football career here.

   Peter claims (as he's told us before) he used to take 80 pain and sleeping pills in a day to get through the pain his body was feeling.

  "All I knew was how much better life looked when you saw it through the haze of opiates," Peter writes in the book. 

   He went on to pen this:

   "I wasn’t afraid of death. How could I be? I lived under death’s shadow every day. When you swallow eighty Vicodin, twenty sleeping pills, drink a bottle of vodka, and still survive, a certain sense of invulnerability stays with you. When you continually use drugs with the kind of reckless determination that I did, the limit to how much heroin or crack you can ingest is not defined in dollar amounts, but in the amounts your body can withstand without experiencing a seizure or respiratory failure. Yet at the end of every binge, every night of lining up six, seven, eight crack pipes and hitting them one after the other bam! bam! bam! every night of smoking and snorting bag after bag of heroin . . . after all of that, when you still wake up to see the same dirty sky over you as the night before, you start to think that instead of dying, maybe your punishment is to live---to be stuck in this purgatory of self-abuse and misery for an eternity. Sometimes you start to think that death would come as a blessed relief. Toward the end, I found myself contemplating death again. Only this time I wasn’t going to leave it to chance. I was going to buy a gun, load the thing, place the barrel in my mouth, and blow my f------ brains out. I sat on my parents’ sofa as I pondered this. All I needed was a gun. And then all of my problems would be solved."

   Peter said he's blown most of the $6.5 million Carolina paid him by purchasing drugs and prostitutes.

   In his book, Peter takes full blame for his problems.

   Here is one excerpt from the book about his departure from the Panthers after doctors determined he could not be cleared medically following a seventh operation on his neck and back. At the time, Peter met with coach George Seifert and soon-to-be GM Marty Hurney about the end of his career.

   Wrote Peter: "I knew what this was. This was the Death Blow. I approached the office slowly and silently. I felt like a man stepping up to the gas chamber. I closed the door behind me and was ushered into a chair. Everyone sat in silence. I took in the office, the polished mahogany desk, the pictures of the trainer's family ... (Hurney and Seifert) were men who knew and loved sports. They knew what they were about to say to me was one of the cruelest things you could say to an athlete. I had the sudden, confusing urge to laugh, or to get up and run out of the office, pretend that this wasn't happening. But, crushed by circumstance, I just sat there and did my best to smile. 

Seifert said: "You know, I've coached men who have damaged themselves so badly playing this game (and) that they can't even hold their children anymore. They pushed it too far, and once your body reaches a certain point ... well, there's just no coming back. Do you understand what I'm telling you, Jason?''

Peter said: "Yes, sir.''

Seifert said: "The bottom line is this: We can't clear you to play anymore. The doctor has told us that you're at risk for a major injury. I'm really terribly sorry.''

Peter said: "Yes, sir.''

The good news is maybe Peter is finally getting his life together after abusing his body for years. He claims he's been sober for four years. (And let's hope he remains that way). He reportedly lives in Lincoln, Neb., where he works as a radio host. He is now married.

   Wide receiver Steve Smith spoke to the local media following Thursday's practice at Bank of America Stadium. Here's what he had to say:

   On the addition of Muhsin Muhammad and D.J. Hackett:  "It's very exciting. It'll add a little extra to it as obviously Jake Delhomme is coming in, feeling good and looking great. It seems like he has a stronger arm and not showing any weakness as far as with that major surgery. With those two acquisitions and obviously some of the big guys on the offensive line, the rookie. Offensively I think we finally made an upgrade compared to the years prior. As those guys had left we really hadn't replenished. We have finally, and I can honestly see a big difference."

   On if Muhammad, now 34, looks different than the last time he was in Carolina in 2004: "I was told things I do at 25, when I'm 30, 34 you'll be able to do a little bit better because you've been in the game for so long you'll be able to just manipulate routes and stuff like that. I don't really see any loss. He's obviously gained a lot of knowledge playing with different quarterbacks and then coming back here. He's gained a little more information like older guys should."

   On if Delhomme's arm is stronger now that he's had surgery: "I think so. He worked out real good and you can see the difference in his body. I'm going to say he looks better."

   On if Delhomme puts more on the ball now: "He can't out-throw me. He's never really out-thrown me, so that doesn't change."

   On if he thought Delhomme would get back to this point: "I really didn't know the magnitude of the surgery. Going through an injury, I've seen that. I've dealt with a long, tedious process of rehab, so I knew what he was going to go through. I would always drop a dime and see how he's doing and check on him and he was always positive. That made me positive. I kept going through the locker room, and it was 'Jake's doing great. Jake's doing great.' "

   On if Dwayne Jarrett (whom he called out last year while Jarrett was talking to reporters in front his locker) and if Jarrett has changed his approach to the game: "We're all here to play football. That's what we're here to do."

   On if he knew how big of a loss losing Delhomme was last year: "I always knew it was a big loss. That's my guy. The magnitude, I didn't understand it. But at the same time with his loss, you've got to find something good out of it and I think for me personally, the best thing to happen to me was to bring in Vinny. Vinny gave me a lot of information, another friend that you can always call on. I still talk to Vinny from time to time. Vinny gave me a lot of information because he played for so long and he played with multiple offensive coordinators, different kind of receivers. I was able to take all of his knowledge. He was teaching me things he saw from some of these great wide receivers he played with back in the 1600s.

   On the team's offensive line: "I was watching Jeff Otah today... outstanding. He did a great job. Jordan Gross is doing his thing. Travelle (Wharton) looks great from the knee. We've got Keydrick Vincent. He looks outstanding. All those guys are looking good. (Milford) Brown, he looks good. Rueben Riley, he's coming along. Jeremy Bridges, they've got some guys at new positions that are doing outstanding."

   On the offensive line being big guys: "One guy that stands in my mind that I hold in high regard is Jeno James. A guy like that, there were times in the game when if Stephen Davis was in his way he'd run him over. Guys like that. Guys of that caliber are outstanding I like watching play. "

   Dwayne Jarrett spoke to the media for first time since being arrested for DUI. He didn't specifically address the arrest, but did talk about football and trying to bounce back from a disappointing rookie season.

   "I think I've improved so much in the last year and now I'm taking it one step at a time," Jarrett said. "I'm paying more attention to detail. Everybody is talented at this level, so you have to take care of the little things. And that is what I've been doing this off-season is working out and learning the playbook. It's so much easier than last year."

   when asked to put last year in perspective, Jarrett said, "It's a whole learning transition thing. The whole thing, jsut becoming a pro, learning the program, learning the new atmosphere. It's all a near learning experience. I went through the trials and tribulations last year and this year I'm looking up and up for things to go good."

   Check back with the Carolina Growl soon as I'll post a story on Jarrett in a little while. Also, I will update my blog following an interview with Steve Smith.

   Wide receiver D.J. Hackett was back on the field Wednesday after missing the last two days with a minor knee problem. Hackett continues to work as the No. 3 receiver for the Panthers behind apparent starters Steve Smith and Muhsin Muhammad.

   "It swelled up on me, but nothing is hurt," Hackett said.

   Hackett, who spent his last four seasons with the Seattle Seahawks, said he's picking up Carolina's offensive scheme pretty well.

   "Everything is going good," Hackett said. "I'm figuring everything out with the offense, the timing and everything. I think things are going good."

   --Landon Johnson continues to work behind starting outside linebackers Na'il Diggs and Thomas Davis, which is a bit of a surprise considering the Panthers gave him a three-year, $10 million contract this off-season. That's considerably less than what Diggs received last December as part of a three-year contract extension.

   When future Hall of Fame wide receiver Torry Holt said earlier this off-season he'd be very interested in finishing his career with the Carolina Panthers once his contract with the St. Louis Rams is over in two years, it caused quite a stir, especially in the St. Louis area where Holt is wildly popular.

   But Holt's younger brother, Terrence, who plays for the Panthers, said his brother was simply speaking his mind.

   "I think more than joking he was being realistic about where he is in his contract and where he is in his career," Terrence Holt said. "I think he has two years left and he will play. I don't think he said anything that is out of the realm of what can happen. He has two years left and after the two years are left he will begin to analyze where he's at in his career and health-wise and team-needs wise and everything. I don't think he said anything that was too out of bounds or too bad on St. Louis, or that disrepected the Rams management or the team.

   "I think he just being honest. We as players get looked at badly by being honest. But this is a brutally honest league and when teams make decisions and cut you, nothing is said about that. (They will say), "It's just the right move to make." I think he said something that he has two years left and after that if they don't re-sign him he'll see if he can get back to Carolina."

   Still, the news apparently didn't sit well with some in the Rams organization, prompting Torry to back out of bowling tournament with his brother in Charlotte last week.

   "We thought that might be too much. We thought with all of the uproar it would look too suspicious," Terrence Holt said. "We thought someone might superimpose a Panthers shirt on it might be too much. But anywhere I go he's always going to be because we're brothers and we're tight like that. It just so happens that he said that and this is his hometown and whenever anybody catches him in Charlotte hanging out with me there will be something said about that."

   Terrence Holt, who signed with the Panthers this off-season and is working as the second team free safety, said his goal is to convince his brother to play for Carolina. Of course, Terrence has to take care of his own business first. His contract expires after this season, so he must show management that he can be productive, too.

   "I'm trying to get him realed in," Terrence Holt said. "He's been up here a few times and began to fall in love with the area. I told him the next thing is you have to combine that with playing here. We'll see how it goes. I try to take care of myself  and give myself a home surface and set up shop and then bring him along. (To play with him), that would be the ultimate. That would be the capper on our careers. That would be something we dream about and hopefully will come true."

   Had to bolt from today's practice directly to elementary school for kindergarten graduation day, so I'm sorry this blog is a little late in posting.

   Anyway, first-round draft pick Jeff Otah practiced for the first time Monday with the Panthers. He looked decent, although a little slow picking up some blocks. Don't worry, as that is to be expected. Otah admitted he still has plenty of work to do to adjust the pro level.

   "It felt good to finally get out there," Otah said. "You know what you're doing but you have to get it in your head a little faster so you can react quicker."

   Otah had been working on the side with trainers since the start of OTAs last week.

   Check back later and I will have the complete story on the return of the Big O.