Cam Newton has a clean bill of health for the most part and he’s rated as the No. 1 available free agent, but as of today, he remains unsigned.
Despite a stellar 9-year career in Carolina, where he took them to the Super Bowl, carried and sacrificed for the offense and the franchise, Cam was dumped by ownership, coming off an injury.
Now, he can’t find a team. From all reports, most NFL teams feel confident with their quarterback situation which is absolute hogwash. When you have a chance to bring in a QB of Cam’s caliber, you do it. There’s way too many subpar talents taking snaps in the NFL.
The Bucs got rid of a passing leader to bring in a 42-year-old Tom Brady on a whim.
Hall of fame quarterback Warren Moon ingested an interesting perspective in the Cam Newton saga today on ESPN’s Get Up. Moon feels that Cam’s charisma and his dominating persona will scare some team sway from signing him.
He’s not a guy.. I don’t see (him) going somewhere where he can be a backup,” said Moon, a Hall of Famer who was racially blackballed and forced to play in the CFL before becoming a star NFL quarterback with the Houston Oilers and Minnesota VIkings in the 80s and 90s.
He still brings a lot to the table if he’s healthy. The thing that concerns me is his personality. He’s a big time personality he brings a lot to the table when he comes to a team and there’s some teams who can probably deal with that and some teams who don’t want their leader to be that type of personality.
So that’s the problem he’s gonna face in trying to find another home.”
Sounds like “Fear of A Black Quarterback” to me. In fact, it sounds strikingly similar to the excuse Tony Romo once gave me a few years ago as to why Colin Kaepernick hasn’t been signed; “He has too much star power to be a backup,” Romo said of Kap.
I thought the NFL was past that. Those people who want to “keep race out of it” will point to the Black QB explosion the NFL has recently experienced that saw an All-Black array of Pro Bowl QBs, a Black Super Bowl champion and league MVP emerge.
However, Cam has been trailblazing before any of these new jacks and he’s just 30 years old, despite the beating he’s taken while making the Carolina Panthers credible and becoming one of the most popular faces in the NFL. He’s also not the humble Black dude, walking around with his head down, just happy to be here. He’s special and he’s always acted like it.
“Cam is a different beast,” said ESPN analyst Marcus Spears. “Teams may not want a polarizing QB…Cam is polarizing, He dresses differently and his approach to the game is brash and outlandish which I think are his better qualities.”
Sounds like excuses to me. The NFL quarterback pool isn’t that plentiful. You can’t convince me that Cam can’t come into somebody’s camp and win a starting job from one of these stiffs. The Chargers lost Phillip Rivers and are acting like Cam is a worse QB. He’s also almost a decade younger than Rivers.
Which makes you wonder why Cam hasn’t been signed. And if it’s because he’s too marketable, too big of a brand then that’s a load of bull because the NFL is all about marketing. And if you can bring in a quarterback who is already larger than life, a fan favorite and can uplift your franchise, why wouldn’t you do it? Unless there were underlying reasons and knowing the NFL’s track record with these things, who would be surprised if that was the case.
