Cam Newton Was a Football Phenom. So Why Has His Career Faded?

Cam Newton has been one of the defining sports figures of the past decade. He won the 2010 Heisman Trophy while leading Auburn to the national title. He won the 2015 NFL MVP award while leading the Carolina Panthers to a Super Bowl berth. He’s been honored, criticized, questioned, and released. In June, he signed with the New England Patriots.

Over the last year, The Ringer’s Tyler R. Tynes has spoken to coaches, teammates, friends, family members, reporters, and even Newton himself on the QB’s life and career. The Cam Chronicles is available on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

The Life and Career of Cam Newton

And a Bonus Q&A With Our Host, Tyler Ricky Tynes

How long have you been working on this project?
I think the answer closest to the truth is 14 months. We were all sitting in a conference room in Los Angeles last May or so when the idea came up that something more comprehensive needed to be done. Something that wasn't like other pieces that had been done, because it always left out a human connection to Cam because many items didn't have Cam's voice in it, or never explored his family life, or was lacking pertinent contextual information to paint a fuller picture of who he is. That turned into a few months of research and pre-reporting, not really knowing what this was going to look like—a feature, an essay, a podcast, an album featuring Tierra Whack. Eventually, I just worried about the reporting and getting as close to Cam and an idea of who Cam was at this juncture of his life as possible and what his status as a Black quarterback meant at the moment when a burgeoning class of Black talent was everywhere in the league. Next thing I knew, in December, me and a producer were holding boom mics during tailgates in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Why is so little known about the intricacies of Cam Newton’s life?
From my experience reporting around the country for the last few months and what I've known about him as a writer who has frequently penned things about pro football, I'd say it's because that's what he prefers. Cam hasn't done a sit-down interview in nearly half a decade. He enjoys, at times, to be the brooding, mysterious recluse. It's what makes him so unique within the NFL atmosphere. Cam is both everywhere and nowhere at the same time. We both see the fantastic garments and boisterous behavior, yet know nothing of his home life, some of his motivations, and what makes him tick. We tried to unravel that over this series, trying to take a peek at why Cam is the way he is, why he acts the way he does, why he appears to be so aloof at times. I'd say we accomplished a great deal of that in the way we chose to do this style of storytelling, but it only goes so far because of Cam's reluctance to do an in-depth interview. 

Has working on this podcast changed your opinion of Cam?
I wouldn't say it changed my opinion on Cam. I would say it amplified it. I've long believed that Cam Newton is one of the greatest talents we've ever seen play sports, one of our mightiest characters in athletic tales. His historic run at Auburn. Taking the Panthers to the Super Bowl in 2015, a team devoid of real threats except for him. He became one of the best young quarterbacking talents we've ever seen statistically. I knew all of this before I started reporting this project, but to walk the ground that Cam did in Texas, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia, I think I understood more about him than I ever have. To go to church with him and his family on a small patch of land in Georgia, eat brunch with the parishioners, and just take in what a weekend or a few days with him looks like should cause a shift in how we see a person. But if you've already appreciated Cam for where he is, who he is, and how he goes about his business, then it only padded the working memory of a man who gave his body to a franchise that never seemed to give enough of themselves back to him. 

What’s something you want people to know about this project?
That in the many ways Cam Newton has presented himself to the press—authentic, unshrinking, brash, cool—we've tried to do the same in our presentation of his story. I'm just a kid from North Philly with a mission to tell stories about Black people that frequently get overlooked in our journalistic endeavors in the press. The reason I wake up every day is because of a pathos to tell my most transparent American truth, that is a Black truth, that is one from a city upbringing and one with a deep anchor to a history and set of facts that are often overlooked. A lot of that deals in the world of athletics, or the intersectional points—culture, politics, race and racism—that we're told doesn't have a place in our wide understanding of sports. Cam's story is part of that, and stories about people like him are at the core of the reporting we set out to do since I've come to The Ringer. And at the end of the day: Conor Nevins, who edited this series; Isaac Lee, who composed it; Noah Malale, who directed it; and Kara Kornhaber, who helped produce it; and countless other staffers who saw it to its completion just want to tell you a good story you've never heard before. The hope is that we've accomplished that. Because that is, at the core, how this project came to be—from both those ideals and those mantras—and what I want people to know as they dive in for a few hours to listen to a tale about a little boy from Atlanta who went to Florida for football, took a detour in Texas, bounced his way back to Alabama and found glory on Sundays on our televisions as the star he was always born to be.  

Follow The Cam Chronicles on Spotify