If it turns out that Panthers quarterback Cam Newton does indeed have a fake smile — as draft pundit Nolan Nawrocki declared in 2011 — it’s the longest con in the recent history of the NFL.
Last night, the Panthers quarterback literally gave the shirt off his back to a Wounded Warrior.
According to Bill Voth of Black and Blue Review, the Panthers were visited at their practice in downtown Charlotte by U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Cedric King.
King lost both his legs and part of his right arm after stepping on a land mine in Afghanistan, and has served as an inspiration to the team since 2012. He was sitting in the tunnel just off the field last night, and after practice, Newton stopped to talk while fans were screaming all around for an autograph.
The quarterback then pulled the shirt off his back — his blue Superman shirt he was wearing under his jersey — to give to King.
It was a small gesture, but continues to build a larger storyline about the Panthers quarterback. Throughout his career, he’s done a number of things such as this offseason’s trip to see the families of the Charleston church shooting victims, or befriending a 6-year-old cancer patient Braylon Beam (shown here) who has become the team’s honorary coach that go largely unnoticed — largely because Newton doesn’t seek out attention for them.
Newton entered the league under a cloud of suspicion based on his college days at Florida and Auburn, and there were plenty of questions about his character.
Most of those should have been answered already, but the Panthers quarterback continues to prove that he’s not what a lot of people assumed he was going to be.
And also that some of those pre-draft assumptions that get repeated blindly can create narratives which turn out to be the opposite of the truth.
