Cam Newton addresses Lisfranc injury; vegan diet being blamed

Cam Newton posted a video on his YouTube channel Friday night to address his Lisfranc injury, opening up publicly about an injury midseason — something that is extremely rare for NFL players, who typically keep things quiet.

The Carolina Panthers quarterback said his goal with the video was to “be completely transparent” about his situation. Sitting in a chair in a dark room while lighting a cigar and sipping from a wine glass, Newton talked about how his foot injury began in the preseason against the New England Patriots.

Newton acknowledged he had been hiding a foot injury and finally realized that playing while injured was hurting the team more than helping. He called himself his own worst enemy and said it took seeing how bad he was to realize he wasn’t getting it done.

Newton says he now aims to get back to 100 percent health so he can resume his former MVP form.

“I needed to see that me at 80 percent is not OK,” Newton said. “When I came down to the realization of what my next move should be, it was clear as day. I need to get back to 100 percent.

“At the end of the day, I got to get right,” Newton added. “I got to get right.”

Newton isn’t sure how long it will take for him to recover.

“It could be a week, it could be two weeks, it could be three weeks, it could be four weeks, it could be six weeks,” Newton said. “But the thing I have to understand and know — if it takes that time, I trust in this team that they will, we will, be in a great situation by the time I get back.”

We said earlier this week that the injury could linger for weeks; Newton’s comments seem to match that.

NEWTON’S VEGAN DIET TARGETED

Beyond just the injury, Newton received fresh criticism on Friday regarding his vegan diet.

Newton has said that he went vegan in February. That represents a change from the pescatarian diet he maintained the previous six years, according to the Charlotte Observer.

The Observer wrote a lengthy article on vegan diets, how they affect people, and the success or problems many athletes have had after going vegan. The big theme they pointed out was that it’s very difficult for people to maintain weight on a vegan diet, especially football players who need to be big and strong or risk being pushed around. They noted that Newton had gone from around 250-plus pounds to aspiring to be in the 230-pound range.

There has been a big trend in society towards plant-based, vegan diets. In my opinion, a lot of that trend has emanated from new plant-based food companies trying to drum up business. While going vegan seems trendy for some, each person needs to educate themselves properly and monitor themselves to ensure they’re getting all the nutrition they need and not operating at a caloric deficit, which leads to a loss in weight, muscle and strength in many cases — all of which can be problematic for a football player.