Cam Newton opened up about his injury and struggles early this season in a new vlog he uploaded to his YouTube channel on Friday night. Newton’s post comes days after the Carolina Panthers confirmed Kyle Allen would start for the second consecutive week, sparking rumors about the former MVP sitting out for an extended period of time due to a Lisfranc injury in his foot.
A Lisfranc injury, though commonly mistaken for a sprain, is much more severe due to ruptures in the ligaments in the mid-foot and causing trauma to the joints.
“This is my opportunity to be completely transparent to the viewer, to Panther Nation, to the people who follow me, to the people who hate me.” Newton said in the video.
Throughout the video the star quarterback describes how he spent all offseason rehabbing his injured shoulder, only to injure his foot in the third preseason game. He then goes into detail about how mentally all he thought about was getting ready for week one, despite his body telling him otherwise. Newton talks about how he couldn’t even run in the first two games – not because he didn’t want to or chose not to. He physically couldn’t.
“I guess that’s what this league kind of does. It humbles you, and I really honestly feel like I am being humbled right now.”
Newton also goes into how he never was fully comfortable taking on the Superman mantra, as it made him feel invincible and that nothing could slow him down, but that at the end of the day he isn’t Superman, he’s human.
He also goes on to say that he has the utmost confidence in the Panthers, and in Kyle Allen, to get the job done while he is away. He will stay close to the team and take on an advisory role to Allen in the meantime.
Many pundits have called this the beginning of the end for Newton, but those are the same pundits who have been waiting on him to fail since before he was number one overall pick in 2011. If he bounces back and gets back to his normal self, maybe Cam Newton will have no choice but to really be Superman.
