A lot of Carolina Panthers fans are still upset about the way the team treated Cam Newton leading up to releasing him two months ago.
While there’s something to be said for starting over fresh, it was a poor football decision made worse by bad optics. From team owner David Tepper questioning Newton’s health to Matt Rhule saying he was “unbelievably excited” to work with Cam, it’s clear not everyone was on the same page and the whole thing could have been handled a lot better.
Some would argue that Carolina’s mistakes concerning Newton began earlier than that, though.
Here’s what former Panthers fullback Mike Tolbert told the Athletic in an interview about Newton and why he’s still a free agent. Tolbert said the team did him wrong by releasing him so late and also suggested they mismanaged his injuries.
“. . . They’ve been doing him wrong timing-wise for the past two or three years, if you ask me. It goes back to his shoulder surgery. Everyone knew his shoulder was messed up in the middle of the year two years ago. But they wait until offseason gets ready to start to have shoulder surgery. Makes no sense. Timing’s off. As soon as he got hurt (last) preseason against the Patriots, they were saying, “Oh, he’s got a high ankle sprain.” I looked at it on film carefully. It’s not a high ankle sprain, you could tell that 10 minutes after the play. You knew it’s a mid-foot sprain, Lisfranc, something like that. But you wait ‘til December for him to beg you to have surgery. He shouldn’t have been out there Week 1 and 2. He shouldn’t have been out there probably ‘til Week 4 or 5, at minimum.”
Right on the money.
In fact, this mismanagement of Newton’s injuries goes back even further. Remember, he first hurt his throwing shoulder late in the 2016 season after tackling a defender to prevent a pick-six. The Panthers had no realistic chance of making the playoffs and Newton should have been shut down for the year right then. Ron Rivera kept on playing him and delayed a necessary shoulder surgery.
Hopefully wherever Newton signs (and he will sign somewhere) that team does a better job of handling his health and appreciates what they’re getting.
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