If Cam Newton has proven one thing during his budding media career, it’s that he tends to look at things through the lens of one character: himself.
So it’s only natural that, in a recent appearance on The Travis Hunter Show, Newton portrayed himself as the savior of the Carolina Panthers franchise upon his arrival via the NFL Draft in 2011.
“I went into a locker room of losers,” Newton said. “Guys didn’t know how to win. Guys didn’t know how to prepare. They didn’t take themselves seriously to realize, ‘we were 2-14.’ There was a lot of ‘2-14’ in the mentality of guys.”
Newton then riffed through his resume, which included two NCAA championships and a junior college natty, all before entering the NFL.
“It was a culture shock for me,” Newton added. “The games don’t mean a lot to a lot of people in the league, like you would expect. It’s just money. Not everybody has capabilities to be impact players. They’re just players … mediocre players that [are] just happy to be on the team.”
Unfortunately, the other characters around that team don’t appear to appreciate being diminished as athletes but are also erased from the story altogether.
Several of Newton’s former Panthers teammates responded critically after his comments at Radio Row.
“53 man lockeroom – 1 = 52 losers,” wrote wide receiver Steve Smith Sr., who also carved out an NFL media career since retiring, on X. “Wow… breaking news to 89!”
Defensive end Charles Johnson replied to the initial video clip, writing that he had his best season in 2011, and threatened Newton with “multiple” stories “if we trying to take it there.”
Former Carolina defensive back Captain Munnerlyn told The Athletic in an interview that Newton’s comments were a “slap in the face.”
“He wants to be relevant still. He’s in this media world where he does his podcasts and (ESPN’s) ‘First Take’ stuff, which is good. I’m happy for him. I’m proud of him,” Munnerlyn said. “But I think he still says some stuff just to be relevant still. And if you know Cam, you’ve been around him for years, that’s Cam Newton.”
Longtime offensive lineman Jordan Gross defended the “iconic Panthers players” who were on the team before Newton’s arrival, as well as head coach Ron Rivera, who was hired in 2011.
Newton’s college resume is indisputable (though claiming the Florida title as a backup is interesting), but he didn’t join a nothing franchise. The 2-14 record that earned Carolina the top pick in 2011 was the worst season in franchise history. Newton joined an offense that included Smith and Pro Bowlers like running back DeAngelo Williams and tight end Greg Olsen, who had just played for a conference championship in Chicago the previous season.
The Panthers already had several foundational pieces of the team’s Super Bowl-caliber defense, including Johnson and Thomas Davis.
Since Newton recently claimed he would not trade his MVP trophy for a Super Bowl ring, it’s an interesting trick to lift himself up as a supreme winner now. But the most obvious hole in Newton’s claim is that in 2011, once he arrived to clean up the mess, he claims Carolina left him, and the team finished…. 6-10. The next season, they were 7-9. By the time they finally won the NFC South in 2013, Rivera and defensive coordinator Sean McDermott had turned the defensive into an elite unit led by several stud draft picks, including Luke Keuchly and Star Lotulelei.
They only got those picks because they continued to struggle with Cam Newton under center.
Newton has complained in the past that the Panthers franchise has hung him out to dry. He was left out of the team’s trip overseas last season and claims he was denied a chance to host an event with members of the Super Bowl team.
When you hear Newton call the team losers, you really wonder why.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.