This morning ESPN's 'Mike & Mike in the Morning' spent about 10 minutes with new Carolina Panthers QB Cam Newton. One thing became abundantly clear- he's angry. This fire came from a good place as he discussed those doubting him, how he was dragged over the coals on Jon Gruden's QB camp and how much of the NFL world are writing him off to fail.
Newton remained eloquent throughout, but talked about how Gus Malzahn's offense at Auburn is complex, but just because the verbiage is not he was knocked for having a low football IQ; in Cam's words "It wasn't my fault" in regards to the simplistic play calling he had in college.Cam went on to talk about how he felt the knocks on him for 'character concerns' were unfair in his view.
More after the jump...
Cam conceded he made mistakes at Florida, but was quick to acknowledge that those issues happened years ago and that he had no off field issues in the last two years. He then went on to discuss the NCAA investigation he went through in 2010, saying the claim was false.
As it pertains to his future, rather than his past, Mike Greenberg asked him how he was preparing during the lockout. Newton said he had a copy of the play book in his hands and that his current schedule is to work out during the day, and study the play book during the night.
An interesting sidebar that came from this was that Newton mentioned the play book he had paled in comparison verbally to the call Gruden gave him during his QB camp video- though it should also be noted that Keyshawn Johnson called BS on Gruden's play call during the draft saying to Steve Young something to the effect of "C'mon Steve... you know that was a West Coast call that involved three different protection calls and four hot routes... almost nobody in the NFL calls plays like that."
What remains to be seen is if the play book has been tailored to ease Newton into the NFL (which would be smart) or if they're throwing him into the deep end.