Cam Newton isn’t backing down from his comments during Super Bowl week, when he called his old Carolina Panthers teammates “losers” before he got to the team in 2011 and was called out by one of those former teammates, wide receiver Steve Smith Sr.
On his own podcast “4th and 1 with Cam Newton’’ on Thursday, the former quarterback said “I’m not specifically talking about those guys. I’m talking about the culture that was there prior to me coming into the locker room — and it was a losers’ mentality.”
Newton’s original comments came on another podcast with former Colorado two-way star Travis Hunter, in which Newton said, “I went into a locker room of losers. Just honest. Guys didn’t know how to win. Guys didn’t know how to prepare. They didn’t take themselves [seriously] to realize we [were] 2-14. There was a lot of ‘2-14’ in the mentality of those guys.”
Smith took exception on X, formerly known as Twitter, responding: “53 man locker room — 1 = 52 losers. Wow… breaking news to 89,” along with an angry-face emoji.
He also later added that same day, “I’ve watched & listened from a far as U @CameronNewton talk about @Panthers! None of us are perfect. Yes We were 2-14 before you blessed us w ur presence. The way you have talked about @panthers lately I’m very disappointed. I wish u nothing but the very best. I’m done!!!”
Newton’s first comments about Smith’s reaction came on Thursday.
“When did we become so sensitive?” Newton said. “When did we become so sensitive to really speaking what the reality is? A locker room full of losers? Aggressive, but it’s true.”
He noted he believed it took time after he got to Carolina for the mentality to change before the Panthers went 15-1 and got to the Super Bowl in 2015.
“Is it me saying that, ‘Oh when I came, I made everything [better]?’ No,” Newton said. “I never said that. What I said was, ‘If you’re getting drafted No. 1 [overall], you’re going to a bad football team. That’s facts. And that’s the point that I was trying to tell Travis Hunter. You see what I’m saying? For me, everybody is so taken aback, like, ‘Oh, Cam said this.’ Bro, it’s the truth. It’s the truth.”
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