Prior to holding his private workout in San Diego Thursday, former Auburn quarterback Cam Newton was getting hammered by the media for making those plans. I couldn’t hear enough about how his father was ruining him, how strange these plans were, and how bad of an idea it was. Maybe it was just the backtalk of football personnel upset over the exclusionary nature of a “media only” workout.
Now that the workout actually took place, the groans have dissipated. ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer went gaga over Cam as if the two were dating, NFL.com’s Bucky Brooks described the quarterback’s workout as “absolutely sensational,” and pretty much everyone in attendance agreed that he looked great. Even if the media-only workout didn’t do anything to change Newton’s status amongst NFL scouts and evaluators, it did accomplish something even more important: it cleaned up Cam’s image.
Instead of being the guy who took all the money to play at Auburn, or instead of being thought of as the spread offense, shotgun quarterback, he’s now the guy surging up draft boards because he looked great in a media workout. The talking heads on TV and the pundits on the internet have something very powerful — a large reach and audience. As long as those people believe Cam is a great quarterback, then the workout accomplished something extremely important — changing perception.
If Cecil Newton was behind this idea, then he deserves some credit for an excellent idea.
As for the actual Cam Newton workout video, here it is for you to take a look:
Video from CBS Sports’ Bryan Fischer via Kegs ‘n Eggs
