Cam Newton’s stunning revelation that will shock many, but not everybody

The Super Bowl is the Mt. Everest of the NFL. Every kid who grows up putting on the pads dreams of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs have been lifted three in the last five years, but not everyone is that lucky. Some will play for over a decade, and never even get close.

Cam’s MVP season

That wasn’t the case for Cam Newton who took the league by storm for the first few years of his career. After winning the Heisman Trophy the Carolina Panthers took Newton with the top pick in the 2011 NFL Draft.

He helped build the team from one of the worst teams in the league into a Super Bowl contender. In 2015 he led the Panthers on a 15-1 regular season and took them to the Super Bowl all the while winning the NFL’s MVP. Carolina would eventually lose that Super Bowl to the Patriots by a late field goal from Adam Vinatieri.

Impact over championship

Newton makes his way around various talk shows as pundit and analyst, and on Thursday morning he stopped by First Take to chat with Steven A. Smith who asked him if he would trade his MVP for his Super Bowl. Cam Newton answered in very Cam Newton fashion. “No.”

The Auburn University alum went on to say, “What’s more important: impact or championships? You look at a guy like Allen Iverson, who you stood up on the table and bah bah bah bah. Everyone’s not going to be Michael Jordan. Everybody’s not going to be Patrick Mahomes. Everyone’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."

Newton carried on his argument seemingly taking a couple swipes at other QB’s who have won Super Bowl who maybe weren’t MVP caliber signal callers. “Let me remind you,” he continued. “Brad Johnson won a Super Bowl. Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl. Respectfully, Nick Foles won a Super Bowl. So, yes, when you look at those guys and you say ‘okay, what’s more important, would you have preferred to win a Super Bowl?’ I think that that’s the humble approach, but if we’re being honest, the impact of you holding yourself accountable to say everybody has a responsibility to do.