CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ The inevitable Cam Newton-Carolina Panthers divorce has been a gathering storm in the distance for months.
The thunder and lightning finally arrived in droves Tuesday, as the Panthers said they would "give" the best quarterback in team history permission to seek a trade even as they were in the midst of negotiating a deal with former New Orleans backup Teddy Bridgewater.
Newton fired back via social media, saying the team "forced me into this" and that he had never wanted to leave the Carolina team he starred for from 2011-19.
There's no going back. Newton will one year headline a Panthers' Hall of Honor class _ once the emotions die down _ but he will never play another snap for the Panthers. The team will either trade him or release him.
Bridgewater will be Carolina's quarterback in 2020. ESPN reported Tuesday that Bridgewater, 27, has agreed to a three-year, $60 million contract with Carolina that could be signed once the new league financial year begins Wednesday, and an Observer source confirmed a deal with Bridgewater was being finalized.
Meanwhile, if you are keeping score at home, that makes three Panthers icons to have left the team in the past two months. And only one of those three departures went smoothly. Could no one from the Panthers organization get these guys on the same page?
While the decision to part ways with Newton makes football sense _ Bridgewater is 3 { years younger, not as banged up and went 5-0 as a starter for New Orleans in 2019 _ the team sure could have handled this better.
Let's review: While Luke Kuechly's videotaped retirement went fine, tight end Greg Olsen later insisted that what the Panthers called a "mutual" parting of the ways in late January was, in fact, not mutual at all.
And now we have Newton _ prideful, volatile, charismatic and obviously angry with the way it has ended under a head coach in Matt Rhule, who clearly has decided to do a deep cleaning of the Panthers' roster.
Newton's social-media response Tuesday to the Panthers' announcement that he can seek a trade is worth printing in full.
"STOP WITH THE WORD PLAY!!" he wrote in his signature font. " i never asked for it!! THERE IS NO DODGING THIS ONE; i love the @panthers TO DEATH AND WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU GUYS!! PLEASE DO NOT TRY AND PLAY ME, or MANIPULATE THE NARRATIVE AND ACT LIKE I WANTED THIS; you forced me into this!!"
Olsen replied to Newton's diatribe on social media with two words: "Sounds familiar." It's not a good look for Rhule, owner David Tepper or general manager Marty Hurney to have both Newton and Olsen disputing the facts of their respective breakups.
To some extent, even this mess could be predicted.
There was passion on both sides of the Panthers/Cam marriage. They saw each other through an MVP season; a lost Super Bowl; a fight with teammate Josh Norman; a car accident; multiple injuries and recoveries; a business decision to not jump on a Super Bowl fumble; dozens of "Superman" poses; Tennessee Mom; the clothes; the creation of the "Sunday giveaway" celebration and all sorts of fantastic community work.
And passion usually leads to pain. That pain is hidden better in the Tom Brady-New England breakup _ announced on the very same day as this one _ but it's there. No matter how good you are, one day your old team doesn't really want you anymore. Everyone is expendable.
Say this for Cam: He took the Panthers from irrelevancy to relevancy, and he did that from his very first two games as a rookie in 2011, throwing for 400-plus yards in both of them.
For better or for worse, Newton was a star who made everyone feel something. Now he's feeling abandoned, and he will undoubtedly try to pull off a Steve Smith "blood-and-guts" redemption when he faces the Panthers on the field.
To be clear, the Panthers are actually making the correct call on the football field. Newton will likely find himself in a better long-term situation than on a team that just went 5-11 and is committed to starting over with Bridgewater and new offensive coordinator Joe Brady (who worked with Bridgewater with the Saints).
It just hurts, on both sides. And there's nothing to do now but cut the cord.
Newton and the Panthers, once roped together so tightly, are only connected now by a single strand.
They never won a Super Bowl together. But they sure had some fun.
