Cam Newton makes ridiculous statement about his career accolades

Former Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton gave a questionable answer about his individual awards on ESPN's First Take on Thursday. Stephen A. Smith asked Newton if he would trade his MVP for a Super Bowl championship. Clearly expecting Newton to say yes, Smith was visibly surprised when Newton answrred in the opposite.

"No," Newton said, an answer that got Smith to recoil in shock. "Everybody's not going to be Michael Jordan. Everybody's not going to be Patrick Mahomes. Everybody's not going to be these individuals who have the luxury of saying, 'Hey, I not only dominated this sport, but I also have championships to back it.'"

Stephen A. Smith: "Cam, if you could give back that league MVP for a Super Bowl championship, would you do it?"

Cam Newton: "No" pic.twitter.com/b1wVO2i7Nh
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 30, 2025

Newton then brought up some quarterbacks that the NFL community doesn't consider elite who won a Super Bowl, like Brad Johnson, Trent Dilfer and Nick Foles. He believes that winning the MVP is holding one's end of the bargain for his team, as winning a Super Bowl is a team effort. If that's the case, don't show Newton the play in Super Bowl 50 where he didn't make an attempt to recover his fumble. He wasn't really holding his end of the bargain on that one.

Newton won his MVP the same season he led the Panthers to their second Super Bowl appearance, losing 24-10 to the Denver Broncos in Peyton Manning's final NFL game. He acknowledged that his opinion, which seems to value individual accolades over team ones, isn't popular.

"I know that’s not the popular pick," Newton said. "I’m not trying to be popularized! My take is, I’m taking individual success because I did my job. Football is not about one guy trying to do 11 jobs, it’s 11 guys doing one job."

Newton never got another attempt at either career accolade again, failing to make it back to the Super Bowl and never having another MVP caliber season.