New York ? Cam Newton’s selection as the No. 1 pick was perhaps the only predictable element of this most unusual NFL Draft.

While the league’s labor dispute played out in the courts, and the commissioner struggled to speak over a howling crowd chanting “We want football,” the draft got under way Thursday night with a few surprises.

Newton was not one of them.

The Auburn quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner went to the Carolina Panthers –the worst team in the league — and vowed to fix that immediately. Newton led Auburn to an undefeated season and its first national championship since 1957.

“I’m ready to change this whole organization around, to go from worst to first,” he said. “Just being a Panther is the most special part about this.”

Not so special but certainly unusual was Commissioner Roger Goodell getting booed as he prepared to conduct a moment of silence for victims of the devastating storms that ripped through the South. He responded to their chants for football by saying, “I hear you. So do I.”

Then he was bear-hugged by a player who is suing the league.

With the second pick, Denver took Texas A&M linebacker Von Miller, a plaintiff in the antitrust lawsuit players filed to block the lockout. He strode across the stage with tears in his eyes and embraced Goodell.

“I’ve never had anything against Roger Goodell,” Miller said. “I just want to make sure football continues to get played. When I walked across the stage, I was meeting the commissioner. That was it.”

It was a strange opening for what normally is a festive occasion. In this offseason of labor strife, the league’s first work stoppage since 1987 temporarily ends Friday. The 32 teams will resume business in compliance with U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson’s order to lift the lockout. Then again, the lockout could be back in place if the NFL wins an appeal.

l Complete list on page 6B