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It’s officially Super Bowl season, and that means for the next week and a half, analysts on every network will be looking for every possible angle to cover this momentous event from. That includes diving into the history of the game, talking with the players who have been there before, and reflecting on what the experience of playing in the biggest game in all of professional sports means. And apparently, to former Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, it doesn’t mean as much as it does to others.
During a segment on First Take on Thursday morning, Newton was asked by Stephen A. Smith if he would give up his regular MVP Award to have won a Super Bowl in his career. Perhaps “shocking” wasn’t the best word to use in the title here. Maybe “disappointing” is a better word to describe Newton’s response.
Stephen A. Smith: “If you could give back that league MVP for a Super Bowl championship, would you do it?”
Cam Newton: “No. … What’s more important? Impact or championships? … I’m taking individual success because I did my job.”
(via @FirstTake)pic.twitter.com/JYnZO25bJ3
— NFL on ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsNFL) January 30, 2025
Now it’s only fair that Newton gets his flowers, because the Panthers absolutely would not have made the Super Bowl if it weren’t for his Superman heroics from the opening week of the season up until the NFC Championship Game. Carolina went 15-1 in the regular season and Newton threw for 3,837 yards and 35 touchdowns while also adding 636 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground. Newton is right. His impact on the 2015 Carolina Panthers was irrefutable. He did his job… for 18 games.
But in Carolina’s last game of the season, the league’s MVP did not prove to be as valuable as he had for the four months leading up to the game. Against the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50, Newton completed just 43 percent of his passes for 265 yards. He turned the ball over three times, and the high-scoring Panthers were held to just 10 points in their biggest game of the season.
Ask any quarterback who has won both a league MVP and a Super Bowl — we’re talking guys like Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Peyton Manning, John Elway, Joe Montana, etc. — which means more to him, and I’d be willing to bet that to a man, they’d all take the Lombardi Trophy over the MVP Trophy. And perhaps this is rooted not in a character flaw of Newton, but instead, a lack of perspective because Newton never did win a Super Bowl title.
Maybe that’s a feeling you only truly know the importance of if you actually accomplish it.
The post Cam Newton drops shocking take on MVP vs. Super Bowl achievement appeared first on ClutchPoints.
