Former Panthers quarterback Cam Newton recently said that he arrived in 2011 to a “locker room of losers.” Former teammate Steve Smith Sr. and other Panthers from the 2010 team took exception.
Newton addressed the situation on the latest episode of his Fourth and 1 podcast.
“When did we become so sensitive?” Newton said, via the Associated Press. “When did we become so sensitive to really speaking what the reality is? A locker room full of losers? Aggressive, but it’s true.”
Newton said he wasn’t referring to any particular players, but to the entire situation with a team that went 2-14 the year before the Panthers made him the first overall pick in the draft.
“I’m not specifically talking about those guys,” Newton said “I’m talking about the culture that was there prior to me coming into the locker room — and it was a losers’ mentality.”
The Panthers improved to 6-10 in Newton’s first year. By his fifth season, he was the NFL MVP and the Panthers went to the Super Bowl.
“Is it me saying that, ‘Oh when I came, I made everything [better]?’” Newton said. “No. I never said that. What I said was if you’re getting drafted No. 1, you’re going to a bad football team. That’s facts. And that’s the point that I was trying to tell Travis Hunter. You see what I’m saying? For me, everybody is so taken aback, like, ‘Oh, Cam said this.’ Bro, it’s the truth. It’s the truth.”
His broader point — that the first overall pick ends up with the worst team from the prior year — is true. He still went too far in making it. Instead of acknowledging that, he doubled down.
We’ll see what, if anything, his former teammates have to say about his latest remarks.
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