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Don’t think for a second that Cam Newton doesn’t hear all the haters, jokes, and critics who doubt him. He hears you, and uses the negativity as fuel.
Newton was asked how he deals with the criticism he has received throughout his career, but especially of late coming off a tough 2020 campaign.
His answer:
“Simple,” Newton said, per Karen Guregian of The Boston Herald. “Feed your focus. Feed it. If the hate ain’t in my focus, I don’t feed it. I feed off of it, but I don’t feed it. It’s two different things. When I sense or when I dwell on hatred, that’s the product that’s gonna come out: rage, anger. But that’s the hatred using me, not me using the hatred. So I want to process that and make that fuel me. I don’t dwell on what a person may say, what this person may say, she say, I just use it to my advantage and I feed what I want it to feed.”
Some people are built different. Those differences are the reasons Newton is one of the most polarizing athletes in the last 25 years.
Can Mac Jones Supplant Newton?
At some point, New England Patriots rookie quarterback will become the starter. the question is: when will it happen? Will he take Newton’s job in training camp? Will Newton begin the season as the starter, run into some issues and give way to Jones who will never look back?
Perhaps this will turn into a redshirt year of sorts for Jones because Newton and the Patriots will exceed expectations, contend for the AFC East title, and return to the postseason. You’ll find people on every side of the fence to that question.
At the end of the day, the answer will likely be determined by one guy, and it’s not Bill Belichick.
Newton is in Control
Well, to a degree, the decision will ultimately be Belichick’s to make, but Newton is in the driver’s seat. Belichick said as much the day after he drafted Jones.
Cam [Newton]’s our quarterback. Whatever position, whatever time Jarrett [Stidham] or Mac [Jones] are ready to challenge and compete, then we’ll see how that goes. But right now, Mac, he’s just got a lot of learning in front of him. I know he’s very anxious to get going on it and get started and so we’ll start trying to give him material to work on and be ready for the rookie mini-camp in the second week of May, and then on to the rookie development program and so forth. So should be a good opportunity for him to be able to Mac there, certainly better than what we had last year. So look forward to that. And tomorrow we’re going to have a pick in each round, have some extra picks the third day of the draft, so we’ll see how all that plays out, but just kind of go back tonight and tomorrow, reset the board and get ready for tomorrow just like we did today. So that’s kind of where we are.
Barring a horrible showing through training camp and preseason, it is hard to imagine Newton giving way to Jones. Quite honestly, if Newton is bad enough to be beaten out by Jones, he might be more apt to get released than to take a role as a backup.
As Belichick often says, “we’ll see how it goes.”
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