Newton: "I see myself not only as a football player, but an entertainer and icon.'' Ron Rivera, Chan Gailey, John Harbaugh blanch.
Peter King
SI_PeterKing
Wow. Peter King apparently got a phone interview with Cam Newton today, and what you see above is what Cam said to King. There have been a lot of people that have tried to tell me that Cam Newton and Vince Young are not the same player. They are right, but only to an extent. Any reasonable person would agree that the reason VY failed is because he wasn't willing to put in the time that being an NFL franchise quarterback requires. If Cammy sees himself as an entertainer and an icon, my bet is that he won't be willing to put in that time either.
I have made it clear that I don't want the Titans to draft him. I know that playing quarterback is about throwing touchdowns and winning games. However, to do those things you have to be willing to put the time in year round, and especially during the season. I don't think a franchise quarterback has time to be an entertainer. You can make the argument that guys like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are icons, but they got that way because of their play on the field- not because they merely said they wanted to be an icon.
[UPDATE]- Cam also spoke to Dan Wetzel:
"not to sound arrogant....
Has anyone ever started a sentence like that and then not sounded arrogant?
....but what I did in 1 year others couldn't do in their entire collegiate careers."