Penny Thoughts: The NFL failed Cam Newton

There are a couple of dates that stick out in my mind when talking about football.

The first real college football game I remember watching took place on Jan. 10, 2011. It was the national championship game, and the Auburn Tigers, my Auburn Tigers, were tied 19-19 with the Oregon Ducks.

Eventually, with the game tied at that score, Auburn’s Heisman winning quarterback, one mired in various controversies, gave the ball to running back Michael Dyer, who, after seemingly appearing down, ran for 37 yards. This would set up Wes Byrum’s 19-yard field goal to win Auburn’s first national title since 1958.

The second date that sticks out in my mind is Feb. 7, 2016. I was about a month removed from my house burning down, but in terms of the NFL, life was good. The Carolina Panthers, my Carolina Panthers, had burned through the NFL and finished the regular season 15-1, with the lone blemish coming from the Atlanta Falcons. In the playoffs, they used a 31-0 first half to beat the reigning NFC Champions, the Seattle Seahawks, and then thrashed the Cardinals, 49-15. The only game left was the Super Bowl.

For the first time in my life, my favorite NFL team had made the Super Bowl (I don’t count Super Bowl XXXVIII because I didn’t watch football back then).

Cam Newton, Carolina’s MVP winning quarterback was mired in various controversies, most coming from his rambunctious personality that refused not to celebrate after scoring. Fans hated him simply because they were not him.

In a stark contrast to what happened in Tucson, Ariz., the Panthers offensive line couldn’t contain one Von Miller, who, by himself, sacked Newton 2.5 times and forced two fumbles, with the second being a point of focus.

Down 17-10, on third down, Cam was stripped by Miller, and in the ensuing chaos, instead of diving towards the ball to recover it, Cam hopped back a bit. The fumble was recovered by the Broncos and they won 24-10.

I have no idea what possessed Cam to not dive at the ball. No one does. Cam hasn’t answered any questions pertaining to the play.

After the game, Cam answered in short, one sentence answers, and eventually (with Broncos corner Chris Harris Jr, who was horribly placed in a booth by the NFL where he could be heard raving about the victory near Newton) he walked out of the press conference.

The next year, Cam started the season by receiving multiple helmet-to-helmet collisions from the Broncos, most of which went unflagged, started a down season for Newton which left many wondering if the repeated hits to the head (and a later concussion against the Falcons) had anything to do with Cam’s year.

This began the end of the Newton era in Carolina, as a few years and a playoff appearance later, a season in which Cam was injured and only played two games would be his last in Carolina. A false rumor of Cam wanting a trade and then Carolina being unable to find a trade for Cam lead to the Panthers simply releasing their best player in franchise history.

He would then sign with the Patriots, where he would get off to a pretty good start before contracting COVID-19 and then never appearing the same afterwards. Soon, Cam became a laughing stock in the NFL scene and any mention of his name received cries of “overrated” and “not a Hall of Famer.”

And on Aug. 31, he was released by the Patriots, to be replaced by rookie Mac Jones. And, even though Newton said on his Instagram to “not feel sorry for him”, a wave of sadness hit me. One of my favorite football players was without a job, a subject of ridicule.

And I can’t help but place the blame on the NFL. Not just the league, but the fans as well.

First off, and the big thing I’m writing about, is the fans and the sportswriters. For whatever reason, people hated Cam for being “cocky.” I never understood it. There’s a difference between being cocky and not backing it up, and being cocky and being horrible at your sport. From what I saw, Cam had a pretty good right to be “cocky” (if you can call celebrating after a touchdown “cocky”). 35 touchdowns to 10 interceptions through the air with 3,837 yards, as well as 636 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns on that behalf as well? That’s pretty good. MVP numbers.

Yet, the NFL hated him for it. And they still hold a grudge, I guess, as the same jokes told years ago, the same disrespect from years ago, is harbored in the jokes about the former MVP. I guess the hatred for the winning Cam did in 2015 was enough to make them angry enough for the next six years.

And then of course his tenure in New England didn’t help. Now people have an excuse to say his MVP season was a fluke, or that Cam was never good in the first place, or any other false platitude from someone who has probably never played the sport (or better yet, people who played the sport and weren’t good at it).

And the sportswriters loved to focus on the “cocky” aspect of Cam. Sportswriters discussed to no end how classless Cam’s Super Bowl presser was but failed to see him smile with Peyton Manning after the game, or the season before where he got into a car accident and came back two weeks later to lead the Panthers to the playoffs.

Why do we trust sportswriters with anything?

And the NFL, who as a league, has failed on about ten million fronts, didn’t help Cam either. “Oh, he’s six foot eight, he can take those hits to the head!” He’s injury prone because of it. Hell, the 2011 BCS Championship Game saw Cam overcome a back injury to beat Oregon. He’s overcome a multitude of shoulder injuries (which is one of the reasons his passing game last season was rather lackluster). As more quarterbacks like Cam come in, these problems will be fixed, but Cam was the first of his kind; thus, this is the treatment he gets.

Is Cam going to be back? No one knows. I sure don’t. He showed signs of improvement in the preseason, but it obviously wasn’t enough. Most people think that he’s a backup in this league, but personally, I think that Cam is still a starter in the NFL. And no matter how much the league, fans, and sportswriters disagree, I think my opinion will stand.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of The West Alabama Watchman.