Cam Newton


Cameron Jerrell Newton is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League for 11 seasons, primarily with the Carolina Panthers. Nicknamed "Super Cam", he is second in career quarterback rushing touchdowns and third in career quarterback rushing yards. Following a stint with the Florida Gators, Newton played college football for the Auburn Tigers, winning the Heisman Trophy and the 2011 BCS National Championship Game as a junior. He was selected first overall by the Panthers in the 2011 NFL draft.
Newton made an impact in his first season when he set the rookie records for passing and rushing yards by a quarterback, earning him Offensive Rookie of the Year. The league's first rookie quarterback to throw for 4,000 yards in a season and the first to throw for 400 yards in his NFL debut, he also set the single-season record for quarterback rushing touchdowns. From 2013 to 2017, Newton led the Panthers to four playoff appearances and three division titles. His most successful season came in 2015 when he was named the NFL Most Valuable Player and helped Carolina obtain a franchise-best 15–1 record en route to an appearance in Super Bowl 50. Newton was the first African-American quarterback to outright win NFL MVP.
Following his MVP campaign, Newton struggled with injuries and reached the playoffs only once over the next four years. Released ahead of his 10th season, Newton played for the New England Patriots in 2020. He was released by the Patriots the following year and returned to the Panthers for his final season.

Early life

Newton was born in Atlanta on May 11, 1989. He is the son of Jackie and Cecil Newton Sr., who was a safety for the 1983 Dallas Cowboys and 1984 Buffalo Bills, and the younger brother of Cecil Newton, a center who played in the NFL. His youngest brother, Caylin, was the quarterback for the Howard Bison in the mid-2010s.
Newton was a talented baseball and basketball player as a youth, but developed a fear of being hit by a pitch in baseball and could not avoid foul trouble on the basketball court. He stopped playing baseball at 14 years old and quit basketball shortly into his high school career. In 2015, Newton graduated from Auburn University with a degree in sociology.
Newton attended Westlake High School in Atlanta, playing for their high school football team. As a 16-year-old junior, he passed for 2,500 yards and 23 touchdowns and ran for 638 yards and nine touchdowns. After winning the state championship, he gained the attention of major college programs. In his senior year, Newton was rated a five-star prospect by Rivals.com, the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in the nation, and the 14th quarterback and 28th player overall. He received scholarship offers from Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Oklahoma, and Virginia Tech. He committed to the University of Florida at the beginning of his senior year, becoming part of the top-rated recruiting class in the country for 2007.

College career

University of Florida

Newton initially attended the University of Florida, where he was a member of the Florida Gators football team in 2007 and 2008 under head coach Urban Meyer. As a freshman in 2007, Newton beat out fellow freshman quarterback John Brantley as the back-up for eventual Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. He played in five games, passing for 40 yards on 5-of-10 and rushing 16 times for 103 yards and three touchdowns. In 2008, during his sophomore season, Newton played in the season opener against Hawaii but sustained an ankle injury and took a medical redshirt season.
On November 21, 2008, Newton was arrested on felony charges of burglary, larceny, and obstruction of justice on an accusation that he stole a laptop computer from another University of Florida student. He was subsequently suspended from the team. Campus police "tracked the stolen laptop to the athlete...Newton tossed the computer out his dorm window in a humorously ill-advised attempt to hide it from cops." All charges against Newton were dropped after he completed a court-approved pre-trial diversion program. "I believe that a person should not be thought of as a bad person because of some senseless mistake that they made," said Newton in 2010. "I think every person should have a second chance. If they blow that second chance, so be it for them." Newton announced his intention to transfer from Florida three days before the Gators' national championship win over Oklahoma. In November 2010, Thayer Evans of Fox Sports reported that Newton faced potential expulsion from the University of Florida for three instances of academic dishonesty, prior to transferring.

Blinn College

In January 2009, Newton transferred to Blinn College in Brenham, Texas, to play for head coach Brad Franchione, son of Dennis Franchione. That fall, he led his team to the 2009 NJCAA National Football Championship, throwing for 2,833 yards with 22 touchdowns and rushing for 655 yards. He was named a Juco All-American honorable mention and was the most recruited Juco quarterback in the country. Newton was ranked as the number one quarterback from either high school or junior college by Rivals.com and was the only five-star recruit. During Newton's recruitment, Oklahoma, Mississippi State and Auburn were his three finalists. He eventually signed with the Auburn Tigers.

Auburn University

In the offseason prior to his season at Auburn, Newton won the starting quarterback job. Auburn coach Gus Malzahn worked with Newton to refine his throwing mechanics and learn Malzahn's offense as a dual-threat quarterback. Newton started the first game of Auburn University's 2010 season, a home win over Arkansas State on September 4, 2010. Newton accounted for 186 passing yards, 171 rushing yards, and five total offensive touchdowns. He was named SEC Offensive Player of the Week following his performance in the 52–26 victory. Three weeks later, Newton had a second break-out game with 158 passing yards, 176 rushing yards, and five total touchdowns against the South Carolina Gamecocks in the 35–27 victory. On October 2, Newton led Auburn to a 52–3 victory over Louisiana-Monroe. He completed three touchdown passes, one of which went for 94 yards to Emory Blake. It was the longest touchdown pass and offensive play in school history. On October 9, Newton led Auburn to a 37–34 victory over Kentucky. He passed for 210 yards and rushed for 198 yards including four rushing touchdowns. On October 16, during the Arkansas game, Newton ran for 188 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns and threw one touchdown pass in the 65–43 victory. Following these performances, media reports began to list Newton among the top candidates to watch for the Heisman Trophy.
On October 23, Newton led Auburn to a 24–17 victory over the LSU Tigers. He rushed for a season-high 217 yards in the game, giving him 1,077 yards for the season, and set the SEC record for yards rushing in a season by a quarterback—a record previously held by Auburn quarterback Jimmy Sidle that had stood for over 40 years. After this game, Newton became just the second quarterback to rush for over 1,000 yards in the conference's history. He also broke Pat Sullivan's school record for most touchdowns in a single season, a record that had stood since 1971, with 27. Both of these records were broken on the same play: a 49-yard touchdown run in which Newton escaped two tackles, corrected himself with his arm, eluded two additional tackles, and dragged a defender into the endzone for the touchdown. The play was described as Newton's "Heisman moment". Auburn received its first No. 1 overall BCS ranking, and Newton was listed as the overall favorite for the Heisman. In the following game against Ole Miss, Newton scored on a 20-yard receiving touchdown on a pass from Kodi Burns on a trick play.
By halftime of the game against rival Georgia, Newton became the first SEC player to ever throw for 2,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in a single season. With the 49–31 victory, Auburn extended its winning streak to 11–0 and clinched the SEC West, allowing them to play in the SEC Championship game. Newton led Auburn to a 28–27 victory over Alabama in the Iron Bowl after being down 24–0. The 24-point come-from-behind victory was the largest in the program's 117-year history. He passed for 216 yards with three passing touchdowns and ran for another.
On December 4, 2010, Newton led the Tigers to an SEC Championship, their first since 2004, by defeating South Carolina 56–17, setting an SEC Championship Game record for most points scored and largest margin of victory. Newton was named the game MVP after passing for a season-high 335 yards and scoring a career-best six total touchdowns, which were four passing and two rushing. With his performance, Newton also became the third player in NCAA FBS history to throw and run for 20-plus touchdowns in a single season joining former Florida teammate Tim Tebow and Colin Kaepernick, who reached the milestone earlier the same day. Newton was named the 2010 SEC Offensive Player of the Year as well as the 2010 AP Player of the Year. He was one of four finalists for the 2010 Heisman Trophy, which he won in a landslide victory. Newton was the third Auburn player to win the Heisman Trophy.
Following the victory in the SEC Championship, Auburn was invited to participate in the school's first BCS National Championship Game. The game took place on January 10, 2011, in Glendale, Arizona, with Auburn playing against the Oregon Ducks. In a game that Steve Spurrier predicted to score as high as 60–55, Auburn beat Oregon just 22–19 to win the BCS National Championship. Newton threw for 262 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. He rushed 22 times for 65 yards, though he lost a fumble that later allowed Oregon to tie the game with limited time remaining. Once Auburn received the ball, Newton drove the Tigers down the field to win the game on Wes Byrum's last-second field goal. Media outlets wrote Newton was upstaged by teammate Michael Dyer, the game's Offensive MVP, and Auburn's defense, which held the high-powered Oregon ground game to just 75 yards. On January 13, three days after winning the BCS National Championship, Newton declared for the 2011 NFL draft, forgoing his senior season. Some sportswriters have argued that Newton's 2010 season is the best single season by a player in NCAA history due to his dominance with relatively little talent around him.
FinalistFirst place votes
Second place votes
Third place votes
Total points
Cam Newton72924282,263
Andrew Luck783092271,079
LaMichael James22313224916