Cam Newton

A remarkably gifted quarterback with a gift for breaking establishing records for passing, rushing and touchdowns, Cam Newton helped to lift the low-ranked Carolina Panthers from the bottom of the National Football League (NFL) records to a 15-1 record and play in Super Bowl 50, among many other accomplishments. Born Cameron Jerrell Newton on May 11, 1989, in Atlanta, Georgia, he was the second of three sons by Jackie Newton and her husband, Cecil Newton, Sr., who had been played for Savannah State University before briefly landing spots in the pre-season rosters for the Dallas Cowboys and Buffalo Bills in the early 1980s.

As a result, the adolescent lives of Newton and his brothers, Cecil Jr., and Caylin, revolved around football, which paid off for all three young men: Cecil Jr. would go on to play for the New Orleans Saints, among other teams, and Caylin would earn recognition as quarterback for the Howard University Bison. Of the three sons, Cam Newton would enjoy the most notable career, beginning in high school; as a junior at Westlake High School in Atlanta, he passed for 2,500 yards and 23 touchdowns and ran for 638 yards and nine touchdowns, which minted him as a top draw for many national college programs.

Rated a four- or five-star prospect by most scouting programs, he fielded offers from several colleges before choosing to enroll at the University of Florida. However, his tenure with the Florida Gators was short-lived: he played just five games, during which he rushed for 103 yards and three touchdowns, before an ankle injury required a medical redshirt season. He parted ways with Florida University in 2008 after being arrested on felony charges of burglary for reportedly stealing a laptop computer from another student. All charges were dropped when Newton completed a pre-trial intervention program, but the incident marred his relationship with Florida and he transferred to Blinn College three days before the Gators won the 2009 BCS National Championship game.

At Blinn, Newton showed the measure of his potential by throwing for 2,833 yards with 22 touchdowns, which helped bring the team to the 2009 National Junior College Athletic Association championship. He fielded numerous recruiting offers before signing with Auburn University. Again, Newton provided stellar play, setting records for yards rushing in a season (1,077) by a quarterback in his first year and providing Auburn with its first top ranking during Bowl Championship Season (BCS).

After capturing both the Southern Conference and BCS championship games, Newton won the Heisman Trophy by a landslide, but the path to the top honor was marred by an National College Athletic Association (NCAA) investigation into allegations that his father, Cecil Jr., had asked for large sums of money from college recruiters if they wanted his son to play for their team. The accusations briefly kept Cam Newton out of consideration for the Heisman, but the NCAA reinstated his eligibility and later closed without incident.

Newton would depart Auburn before his senior year to take part in the 2011 NFL Draft; despite misgivings from some game observers about his checkered past, Newton was selected as the first overall pick by the Carolina Panthers, which at the time had the worst record in the league. After singing a four-year, $22 million contract, Newton was named starting quarterback, and immediately established himself by breaking Peyton Manning's record for most passing yards on opening day with 422 passed yards, a record he broke just one game later against the Green Bay Packers. Newton capped his 2011 season with 4,051 yards passed, earning a spot in the Pro Bowl and capturing the AP Rookie of the Year and the 40th place on the NFL Top 100 players list, a ranking established by other players.

His sophomore season in 2012 saw just modest improvement in his play, but he returned to form for 2013, leading the team to a 12-4 record and the first round in the playoffs. Newton underwent surgery for ankle ligament problems in March 2014, which caused him to miss training camp, and fractured two vertebrae in a car crash, but still rebounded to throw more than 3,000 yards with 18 touchdowns, minting him as the only player in NFL history to have at least 3,000 passing yards and 500 rushing yards in four consecutive seasons.

Such stellar numbers prompted the Panthers to cement their commitment to Newton with a five-year, $103.8 million contract extension; he proved his worth by leading the team to a franchise-best record of 15-1 in 2015 and defeating the Arizona Cardinals to face the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50. After being named NFL MVP in February 2016, the Panthers were battered to a 24-10 loss by the Broncos in a Super Bowl marked by strong defense but limited offense, though Newton emerged from the loss with the #1 spot on the NFL's Top 100 Players of 2016 list.

He opened the 2016-17 season by tying Otto Graham's record of 44 rushing touchdowns by a quarterback with 44, but a concussion in October and a dress code violation that kept him from starting in December. His play for the season was notably poor, with just 19 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions, which contributed to the Panthers' glum 6-10 record for the year. The following year also got off to a rocky start when Newton was accused of sexism by laughing in response to a question from female journalist Jourdan Rodrigue. Though he issued an apology that same day, the incident cost Newton a lucrative sponsorship, and for a period of time, he avoided or excused himself from press conferences. However, he rebounded, at least in terms of performance, by throwing for 254 yards and rushing for 95 yards for four touchdowns in a game against the Miami Dolphins, netting Newton the NFC Offensive Player of the Week award.