TAMPA, Fla. _ Is Cam Newton actually going to buy into the Carolina Panthers trying to "evolve" him? Does he really hate football at this moment? Was last season the fluke for the Panthers quarterback, or was it this year?
There are so many questions and so few answers for Newton these days. The jagged shards of his broken season glittered one final time Sunday during Carolina's 17-16 loss that put the Panthers and their fans out of their misery.
"For me, I think me and football got a love-hate relationship," Newton said in his postgame news conference. "And we're not on good terms right now. I'm just going to leave her alone for a while."
When I pressed Newton on this point later, he backtracked a little.
"That was just a joke by the way," he said. "I don't want to see on The Charlotte Observer, 'Cam loves and now he hates football. He may not come back next year.'... Listen, I just want to get away from football, just like every person, by default. ... I'm just going to get 100 percent (healthy) and miss it again."
So don't worry. Newton's not about to quit _ and I still feel that if he gets a better offensive line and more playmakers that he's the right person for the job. The guy is a monstrous competitor who quite possibly shouldn't have been playing at all Sunday _ he threw three interceptions with a bum shoulder that caused him to float a lot of balls.
"I thought Cam Newton was about as courageous as it gets," said coach Ron Rivera, who said he tried to take Newton out of the game but was talked into letting him stay in by the quarterback himself. "He didn't want to come out. He tried to make some throws that he probably shouldn't have."
Rivera could have taken Newton out himself, of course. But the issue with the shoulder was pain management, not possible long-term damage.
Said Newton: "They asked me could I go. I said I could and that was the end of it. ... I just wanted to show that I'm willing to leave it all out on the field."
So Newton stayed in and led what could have been a game-winning touchdown drive in the final minute. That went awry _ just like the Panthers' season _ on his last play, however, when Newton correctly read a blitz and fired what could have been a successful two-point conversion pass to Greg Olsen. But Olsen slipped and fell down while making his cut. The throw was incomplete. The Panthers had lost their sixth game by three points or fewer this season.
