Cam Newton has never one to mince his words.
The former Carolina Panthers quartberack had a big reputation for his boisterous personality and on-the-field antics, and certainly always had something to say, which made his weekly press conferences quite a hoot when he still played professional football.
And as a very, very sad Panthers fan right now, I can hardly think about the years he played here anymore without feeling sick, because we’re down bad right now… real bad.
While Cam is no longer a working NFL quarterback, he stays pretty busy these days with his own Youtube channel, often appearing on football podcast and putting in his two cents on matters of the NFL.
For a quick history to give this story context, Jimmy Clausen took over as the Panthers QB in 2010 during week two, and was ultimately benched for good as a starter after being pulled during week five. The team finished with a dismal 2-14 record that year, and obviously last place in the NFC South, though we ended up with the first round draft pick as a result.
The Panthers draft former Auburn quartberack Cam Newton first overall in the 2011 draft, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Cam had worn the #2 jersey while winning two BCS National Championships at Auburn, in addition to a Heisman trophy in 2010, and like many NFL players, he wanted to wear that same number as a franchise NFL quartberack.
Though, as many football fans know, Cam ended up wearing the #1 jersey for the entirety of his career in Carolina, and there’s one reason why… the aforementioned Jimmy Clausen.
In a recent interview with 2cool2Blog, Cam revealed that he had asked Jimmy about switching numbers when he first arrived in Charlotte as a rookie.
And Clausen, who legenedary wide receiver Steve Smith formerly made headlines by calling him a “punk,” wanted something in exchange for it.
No, not just a couple hundred dollars, or even $1,000, which seems relatively reasonable considering how much NFL players make… he wanted $1 MILLION for it, Cam says:
“I didn’t even want #1… Man, Jimmy Clausen. We cool now, Jimbo. He’s like, ‘Shit, if you want it, you gotta pay for it.’ I was like, ‘Cool, how much?’ He said ‘A million.'”
And Cam being Cam, he was not having it… so much so, that he told Jimmy to kiss his ass:
“I said ‘Boy, kiss my ass… a million dollars, bro?
People don’t make a million dollars in a lifetime, let alone I’m gonna give you a million dollars just for a fuckin’ number.'”
Honestly a very, very fair response. I think Jimmy might’ve been salty about some other things at the time, but that’s simply outrageous.
Though, he tried to negotiate, coming back later and telling Cam he could have it for a measly $750,000 (that’s sarcasm, by the way, just to be clear):
“So I thought he was playing. The motherfucker comes back and says ‘Okay, I talked to my people, we’ll do it for$750,000.’
I said ‘Oh, you for real?’ I hung that phone up, true story… I called the equipment manager and said I’m rockin’ with #1.
I made an oath to myself, I said that will be the last time Jimmy Clausen will ever be heard of in Carolina.”
And he kept his word, because Jimmy was waived in 2013 and pretty much fell into obscurity, meanwhile Cam later led the team to a Super Bowl in 2015 and had more than a couple winning seasons.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t a massive fan-girl of Cam’s while he was here, but in hindsight (and you know what they say about hindsight)… I miss him. A lot.
If you wanna hear Cam tell the story himself, it’s pretty damn funny, and you can watch it here:
