Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
Do you know who doesn’t respect Cam Newton? The Carolina Panthers.
Why do the Carolina Panthers seem to hate Cam Newton so much?
Even though he’s the greatest quarterback in franchise history, made three trips to the Pro Bowl, won the NFC South three times and quarterbacked an overachieving 2015 team to Super Bowl 50 during his NFL MVP season, Newton for some strange reason just isn’t good enough to make the Panthers’ “Choose Your Goat” tweet.
Oh, it’s not going over well on Twitter at all.
The Panthers went with defensive end Julius Peppers with REPLY, wide receiver Steve Smith Sr. with RETWEET and linebacker Luke Kuechly for LIKE. Though all three of those Panthers greats will one day wind up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Newton won an MVP for the franchise and they couldn’t give him the time of day because they’re being extremely petty.
It doesn’t matter that he’s still in the league and the other three Panthers greats are recently retired. Newton earned a spot on that graphic and everybody knows it. While he may not end up in Canton like Kuechly, Peppers and Smith, the Panthers are basically saying he’s the fourth face on your franchise’s Mount Rushmore. The guy quarterbacked the team to a Super Bowl. Come on!
The Carolina Panthers opt to go petty by not saying Cam Newton is a GOAT.
For a team that’s finishing dead-last place in the brutal NFC South this year, the Panthers need to take all the wins they can get. So what if they signed Teddy Bridgewater in free agency? He’s the fourth-best quarterback in his own division behind three future Pro Football Hall of Famers in Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Matt Ryan. Newton has a chance and Bridgewater definitely does not.
While the Panthers will eventually get it right under first-year head coach Matt Rhule, we are well aware of how the first year in Matt Rhule rebuilding efforts go. He does win big over time, but he only won two games in his first year with the Temple Owls in the AAC and just a single game with the Baylor Bears in the Big 12. Carolina is not going to be anything close to a playoff team in 2020.
So what if the Panthers and Newton aren’t on the best of terms? They did cut him after the first, and second wave, of 2020 NFL free agency came and went. If the Panthers knew he wasn’t going to play them, why not let him sign with an AFC franchise and be on his marry way? To not accept Newton as a Carolina football GOAT is to not understand what the acronym GOAT means.
Newton isn’t perfect, but he didn’t deserve to be mocked this egregiously by the Panthers.