Even before he became an NFL player in 2011, Carolina Panther quarterback Cam Newton seemed to rub a lot of people the wrong way. In many of his pre-draft scouting reports, Newton was taken to task for what some felt was an overall attitude of entitlement. That’s unusual, because such reports generally focus on what players do on the field unless there are clear red flags. Despite those concerns, the Panthers took him with the first overall pick in the 2011 NFL draft, and Newton went on to set several rookie records in one of the more impressive first-year performances by any NFL quarterback. That season got him to the Pro Bowl, and according to a report by CBS’s Pete Prisco , there were some players on the AFC side who wished Newton had stayed home. As Prisco writes, it’s highly unusual for a quarterback to feel a constant pass rush in a Pro Bowl game — everybody understands that it’s an exhibition, and the focus is on making sure nobody gets hurt. But many AFC defenders, including Houston Texans defensive end Antonio Smith and Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller, went out of their way to give Newton some serious hazing in the pocket. And as Prisco now reveals, the source of that pressure was the fact that the AFC players were seriously underwhelmed with Newton’s demeanor. “He was a total [expletive],” one AFC player told Prisco. “Who did he think he was? He acted like the big [expletive]. Here he was at his first game and he acted like he was the star. Guys didn’t like that.” Various players told Prisco that Newton refused one player’s request for an autograph and a picture for his children at a pregame function, and that at one point, Newton somehow “dissed” Ray Lewis. Lewis denied that happened, but others told Prisco that it did. This just in: “Dissing” Ray Lewis is a very bad idea for any offensive player. “That’s the godfather there,” one player told Prisco. “Can you believe he did that?”
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Cam Newton’s attitude didn’t win him any friends at the Pro Bowl (Shutdown Corner)
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