The gathering of about 1,000 on the beach at Lanikuhonua applauded as Cam Newton’s selection was announced at Wednesday’s NFL Pro Bowl draft, drowning out the waves pounding the Leeward Coast.

Cheerleaders waved pom-poms.

Quite a departure from Newton’s last appearance on these shores, when the vocal portion of the 2012 Pro Bowl crowd at Aloha Stadium had another loud reaction to the quarterback’s presence:

"Boo!"

And, "Boo!" some more.

Newton was the poster player for the lackadaisical play that threatened to make 2012 the last Pro Bowl. The guy in jersey No. 1 wasn’t the only offender, but he was exhibit "A" in showcasing just how much an anachronism the game can be when it is played at yawn speed.

"It was what it was," Newton said of the booing afterward. What it was was a reaction to his tepid performance. It wasn’t the

9-for-27 passing and three interceptions as much as it was the lollygagging way he went about it, including a sit-down "tackle" that had even his teammates shaking their heads at the rookie’s effort. Or lack thereof.

Aaron Rodgers expressed surprise "that some of the guys either didn’t want to play or, when they were in there, didn’t put any effort into it."

That the disappointment over that effort was still not forgotten by some of his 2012 teammates was evident earlier this month when ex-San Francisco 49ers long snapper Brian Jennings told radio station KNBR, "We have Drew Brees with his playbook all week, studying. … We have Cam Newton with his headphones on all week goofing off. … We go into the game, and this guy is chucking the ball all over the place, and everybody is looking around going, ‘What’s this guy doing?’"

For all the wonder of his 55-yard flick-of-the-wrist touchdown pass to Steve Smith, 186 yards and two TDs, the immensely talented Newton barely deigned to show it.

This week Brees and the elder statesmen of the game, alumni coaches Deion Sanders and Jerry Rice, made much of the "pride" factor of participating in the game.

You wonder how much of it was for the benefit of Newton and others who didn’t get the memo in 2012.

Newton, perhaps exhibiting some of the maturity gained in subsequent seasons, talked about being "competitive" and giving fans a show.

"One thing that I cherish from (2012) was the people who I met, the legendary Hall of Famers. I had an opportunity to talk with those guys on numerous occasions, and just learning as a player and as a person," Newton said Wednesday. "And I’ve gotten better from it."

That is the hope, anyway, because on Sunday, it won’t be a made-for-TV crowd at Aloha Stadium the way it was for Wednesday’s draft. It will be folks who shelled out as much as $192 for a front-row ticket. It will a TV audience deciding between the Pro Bowl and the Grammy Awards.

And the Pro Bowl’s future is still very much up in the air.

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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.