An Old, Fiery Pre-Draft Hot Take on Cam Newton

(I didn't mean to post this, but it's been read, so go down to the next post and read MMQB for this week, it's really, really, really good (not at all) and I don't accuse Peter of loving young men this week)

I don't like writing about my favorite team on this here ol' blog, but this old Bleacher Report article must be addressed. This is representative of the type of articles Bleacher Report used to churn out on a more frequent basis. To call it trolling would be underestimating the terribleness of the writing. To call it any form of sports journalism would be laughable. This dude from Bleacher Report begged for pageviews by writing an article titled, "Cam Newton: Why Carolina Panthers' New QB is the Worst Draft Pick Ever." Sadly, this might be the highlight of this article and it is downhill from there. He's spitting fire and getting attention. That's what it is all about for the author. I wouldn't normally post something like this, but the author is so sure of it and continues his bullshit on his Bleacher Report profile. So, from May 9, 2011, here is a hot draft take.

The author is probably even more pissed-off now that Newton got a $100+ million contract. 

Cam Newton is a sure-fire bust.

A sure-fire bust. Close the doors, put the chairs up on the tables, because it's all over before it begins.

I am so certain of this that if he is the Panthers' starting quarterback in 2016, I will buy a Cam Newton jersey and stand in the stadium parking lot in my underwear when the Panthers come to Tampa Bay

I am certain that I would not want to see this. I am also certain that the author will have to do this unless Newton suffers a season-ending injury of some kind during the 2016 season. To be clear, the author would be cheering for a season-ending injury to Cam Newton.

and hold a sign proclaiming that Auburn rules over Florida and Carolina rules over Tampa Bay.

Not that he has this fiery hot take purely for the sake of attention, but if he's wrong then he wants the world to give him more attention. What's really happening is the author is a Buccaneers fan and doesn't like Auburn, plus Cam transferred from his favorite college football team. There is a lot of biased, irrational hatred towards Newton built up in the author.

This guy will be long gone by then. Here are just a few of the reasons why I believe he will make Ryan Leaf only the second-biggest draft bust in history.

What's really sad is the author spits out hot takes in an effort to gain attention and he can't even succeed at that. He has 11 followers on Twitter and even Bleacher Report doesn't seem to want him writing for them anymore.

1. Cam Newton has not had enough experience as a starting quarterback to warrant a No. 1 pick. He only really played one year of meaningful college football. Yes, it was a fantastic year. Yes, his team went undefeated and won it all. But it was still only one year. How do we know that it wasn't a fluke?

While it was a valid point that Newton didn't have a ton of experience starting in college, it doesn't mean he was going to be a bust in the NFL. He started at a junior college before he played for Auburn for one season. Maybe that's not "meaningful" enough to have played at a junior college.

How do we know that Auburn didn't win because of a fantastic supporting cast? We don't.

Yes, "we" don't, except for the fact there were probably 2-3 players other than Newton on that offense that would even have a chance of playing in the NFL. So a few years down the road, it's easy to see he didn't have a fantastic supporting cast. Even at the time, Auburn wasn't spitting out NFL prospects on offense.

2. Cam Newton has never lost a game as a starting quarterback. Wouldn't it be nice to know how he will react when he does lose a game?

Newton is TOO MUCH of a winner. This is an interesting reason to say he would be the biggest draft bust in NFL history. Newton wins too many games, what will it be like when he starts losing games? Because I'm sure Newton would have been the first college quarterback to come to the NFL and start experiencing losing at a higher rate than he experienced in college. This isn't a battle only Newton would face, so it's not a reason to claim Newton would be the biggest bust in NFL draft history either.

Is he going to learn from his mistakes? Is he going to repeat them?

Again, these aren't questions that would be exclusive to Cam Newton. Your reasoning sucks.

Will he go all "Vince Young" and threaten to hurt himself?

Yes, yes, will he go all "Vince Young." They are both black quarterbacks who won national titles. Will Cam Newton threaten to commit suicide when he doesn't become the winner in the NFL that he thought he would be? In fairness to the author, this question is still up in the air and will be until the day Cam Newton dies. Will Cam Newton, at some point, kill himself? The author asks the tough questions with no easy answers.

Will he lose all confidence? We don't know. Sure would be nice to know these things before using a No. 1 pick though.

Considering it's impossible to know these things about ANY NFL DRAFT PICK THAT IS EVER SELECTED, it would be nice to know these things. If only Cam Newton's future could have been predicted much in the same way most draft picks can have their future predicted. It would be nice to know how a draft pick will react to losing, but...ummm...that's impossible to know for any draft pick so the author's reasoning still sucks.

3. Cam Newton is no brainiac. From all accounts, he came off as an idiot on Jon Gruden's show on ESPN. He looked as if he had no idea what was going on. He was stumped by Gruden's questions. Some even said he looked bored.

Perhaps Newton was bored to death. Was Newton looking to go all "Vince Young" and threaten to hurt himself while on Jon Gruden's show? THESE ARE THE TOUGH QUESTIONS THE AUTHOR IS WILLING TO ASK THAT NO ONE ELSE WOULD TOUCH!

Did he get by at Auburn on sheer athletic ability? Of course he did. He's a freak athlete.

Actually, Newton isn't really a freak athlete in terms of speed or athletic ability. He doesn't run extremely fast, but he's fast for his size and hard to bring down. He has a great arm as well. Still, a lot of college players get by on athleticism. It doesn't mean that player will be a bust in the NFL.

But this is the NFL. 

THIS IS THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE WITH NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE PLAYERS!

There are many people alleging that the real reason Cam Newton left the University of Florida was not because he was caught with a stolen laptop computer, but because he was caught with papers written by other students.

This is a character issue, not a reason that Newton can't play quarterback at the NFL level.

Now, I don't know if this is true or isn't true. But before I used a No. 1 pick on this guy, I'd sure want to consider the possibility that it could be true.

And how on Earth would this brain dead author know that the Panthers didn't check on whether Newton really plagiarized another student's paper? Because the guy who writes for Bleacher Report has so many connections in the NFL that he is aware of every investigation every NFL team starts on every prospect they are considering drafting? It's ridiculous to think the author will criticize an NFL team for not considering a possibility he has no idea whether they considered or not.

It tells us that he is not smart enough to do his own work and get a passing grade. But you expect him to outsmart guys like Dick LeBeau?

A quarterback isn't expected to outsmart the opposing defensive coordinator. He's expected to run the plays that are called, recognize the coverage, and find the open receiver or audible to another play. Few quarterbacks are expected to outsmart the opposing defensive coordinator any more than recognize what the opposing defense is trying to do.

I like how the author thought Cam Newton is stupid because there is a rumor he was caught with papers written by other students and KNOWS Carolina didn't check up on this. Brilliant writing.

When things are going rough for the team, Cam is going to be the guy the other players are going to look to for leadership. How is that going to work? He has no credibility. His word means nothing.

Gee, this almost seems like a personal opinion of Cam Newton and not an opinion that he will be the biggest NFL bust ever because of his skill set.

5. Cam cannot hit the broad side of a barn with a football. All other issues aside, isn't the number one job of an NFL quarterback to complete passes?

His completion percentage was 3rd in the SEC. It's not like being 1st in the SEC, but Newton completed 66% of his passes to a group of receivers few have heard of or remember.

Did you NFL guys not watch the BCS title game? How many touchdowns did Cam leave on the table by missing receivers who were running free? That game should not have even been close.

His completion percentage was 58.8% in the BCS title game. I don't remember how many receivers he missed, but given the author's ability to be intellectually honest and fair, I'm sure he's telling the complete truth here.

On Newton's pro day at Auburn, there were reports of him missing receivers badly while throwing against air. What will happen when he has NFL defensive linemen with bad intentions bearing down on him?

With no sense of irony, the author is about to cape up for Tim Tebow. When Florida won the National title, Tebow's completion percentage was 60% in that BCS title game.

How can an NFL franchise waste a No. 1 draft pick on a guy with this many question marks? Last year all we heard was how Tim Tebow was not worth risking a first-round pick because of his throwing motion—not just the top pick, but anywhere in the top 32.

And what we have here is a University of Florida football fan who just doesn't like Cam Newton because he (the author) is a Tim Tebow fan. Mystery solved. Trolling reason now obvious.

Name another issue with Tebow. Character? Please. Intelligence? No. Accuracy? Not really.

Accuracy was an issue for Tebow. One issue for Tebow is quarterbacking ability, which is a trait that most NFL quarterbacks need to have that Tebow seems to somewhat lack. Newton may be a terrible person who missed an open receiver in an important game, but his skills translated better to the NFL than Tebow's did.

Yet somehow because he came from a spread system he was deemed unworthy of a top pick. Guess what system Cam came from.

As always when it comes to Tebow fanatics, this is really about Tebow more than it is about Cam Newton (or whatever NFL player, usually a quarterback, that is being discussed). Tebow was deemed unworthy because he had a long motion and NFL teams didn't see how his leadership skills combined with his quarterbacking ability translated to the NFL.

So how is it we go from "Tebow sucks" to "Cam is awesome" in one year?

Cam Newton will be the biggest bust in NFL draft history because Tebow doesn't suck? Of course.

When these two guys played on the same team for two years, Cam was the one riding the bench while Tebow was breaking records and winning championships.

The stupidity of this statement can not be understated. Tebow was a sophomore and Newton was a true freshmen. When Tebow played on the same team as Chris Leak, it was Chris Leak who was the starter while Tebow only played sparingly in certain packages. Does that mean Chris Leak had a better NFL future than Tim Tebow did? Of course not. That's one reason why this statement is incredibly stupid. Tom Brady sat the bench at Michigan for Drew Henson at times. Drew Brees sat behind Billy Dicken at Purdue, so obviously that means Dicken would go on to a storied NFL career while Brees would bust, right?

So how is it that the treatment of Cam by the "draft people" is 180 degrees different than Tebow's? I don't know.

So what does this have to do with Cam Newton being the biggest bust in NFL draft history? I don't know. What I do know is saying Newton will be the biggest bust in NFL draft history based on questions that nearly every other draft prospect has about them probably isn't the best reasoning for coming to this conclusion.

Let's ask Denver Broncos fans if they would like to trade Tebow for Newton straight up.

Yes, after Peyton Manning retires perhaps you should ask this question. I'd be very interested to hear the answer.

They would laugh in your face. Football fans know even if the experts have no clue. We can spot a fraud when we see one.

I agree that football fans can spot a fraud when they see one. I'm looking at you, author of this column. I have spotted you. A fraud. You. Even Bleacher Report doesn't want you anymore. Right now, people are laughing in this author's face. Such is life for trolls.

In five years, when Tebow is leading Denver into the playoffs and Cam Newton is riding someone's bench, remember this article.

Oh, this article is remembered and will never be forgotten. This last sentence is the best. Notice how this article went from "Why Cam Newton is the Biggest Bust in NFL Draft History" to "Why Do People Like Cam Newton More than Tim Tebow?" It's almost like the author came to a conclusion on one player based on his feelings for another player. Football fans like this author would never do that though, because they can spot a fraud when they see one. In 2016, football fans can spot a fraud in the Tampa Bay parking lot wearing a Cam Newton jersey and only his underwear.