Hey Cam, less is more.
Ever since Newton walked off the podium during his postgame press conference after his Panthers got obliterated by the Broncos in Super Bowl 50, it’s been a roller coaster. On one hand, it was understandable for Newton to be frustrated as he was sacked six times in a game in which an offense that was 17-1 before kickoff that day got manhandled for 60 minutes. But on the other hand, a man that was so engaging and charismatic in front of the cameras when things were going well, can’t then turn around and not want anything to do with anybody when he’s peppered with questions after his team lost the biggest game of the season.
“We’ll be back,” said a despondent Newton that day. That proved to be a lie.
Well, Newton is back in the news again for his words, which has been the case lately as his remarks in front of a microphone — or something he writes on social media — have become the reason why he’s made headlines over the past few years instead of his play.
“There’s not 32 guys better than me,” Newton claimed on a recent episode of The Pivot Podcast. “On my soul. On my soul. On my soul.”
As a former defender of Newton in years past, and one of the few Black Patriots fans — not from Boston — that celebrated when he signed with New England in the summer of 2020, I’m here to inform Newton that feelings aren’t facts. And even if he was still one of the best 32 quarterbacks in the NFL, this is a league that has proven that it’s not always about talent, as Newton has willingly put himself in multiple situations over the years that have turned people off.
“Carolina, I put myself in another fucked up situation,” Newton explained on the podcast. “I was signed on Thursday, I played on Sunday. At what point did you think you was gonna be successful? That next week, I started. That’s still up under 10 days of you being on the team, and you’re still trying to learn an offense. ... So before I sit up here and allow the narrative to be made that Cam ain’t got it no more, Cam is taking full responsibility and saying that Cam put himself in a fucked up situation.”
Newton also referred to his time in New England as a “fucked up situation.” But accountability becomes meaningless whenever context is missing.
Despite how you feel about Newton’s time in New England that was derailed due to contracting COVID-19, his time in Foxboro ended because he initially decided not to get vaccinated — which made him a liability, and we know how Bill Belichick feels about those.
“Everything is geared to win, and if you’re not built for that, that’s not the place for you,” Newton previously said about New England on an episode of I Am Athlete.
Newton found himself back in Carolina last season, and although things started on a high note, they eventually crashed and burned as it turned into another “fucked up situation” as he described. And earlier this year, he was in hot water over some misogynistic comments he made on a Barstool — go figure — podcast about the ladies.
“A bad bitch is a person who’s just, you know, ‘Girl I’m a bad bitch, I’m doing this, I’m doing that.’ I look the part but I don’t act the part.
“There’s a lot of women who are bad bitches. And I say bitches in a way, not to degrade a woman but just to go off the aesthetic of what they deem is a boss chick.
“Now a woman, for me is, handling your own but knowing how to cater to a man’s needs. Right? And I think a lot of times when you get that aesthetic of ‘I’m a boss bitch, Imma this, Imma that.’ No baby! But you can’t cook. You don’t know when to be quiet! You don’t know how to allow a man to lead.”
Somebody needs to tell Newton to stop talking on podcasts, as his words did not go over well — especially since 47 percent of the NFL’s fans are women. His comments were also triggering given that in 2017 he caught a lot of flack when he told a female beat writer that it was “funny to hear women talking about routes,” when she asked a question.
For those keeping score at home, since 2016: Cam Newton has acted like a child after losing a Super Bowl, used to be an anti-vaxxer, said a handful of outdated, cringeworthy, and misogynistic things, and hasn’t been anywhere near as good as he was during his 2015 MVP seasons due to injury, age, and COVID-19 — but yet, he believes that “there’s not 32 guys better than me,” as he’s looking for employment after willingly taking part in two “fucked up situations.”
Cam Newton keeps getting in Cam Newton’s way. And until Cam Newton realizes that, Cam Newton will remain out of the league due to something that Cam Newton probably said on a podcast.