Cam Newton

He is the son of Jackie and Cecil Newton Sr., who was a safety for the 1983 Dallas Cowboys and 1984 Buffalo Bills, and the younger brother of Cecil Newton, a center who played in the NFL.

Cameron Jerrell Newton (born May 11, 1989) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the Carolina Panthers.

He is the NFL leader in career quarterback rushing touchdowns and second in career quarterback rushing yards.

Newton was born in Atlanta on May 11, 1989.

He committed to the University of Florida at the beginning of his senior year, becoming part of the top-rated recruiting class in the country for 2007.

Newton initially attended the University of Florida, where he was a member of the Florida Gators football team in 2007 and 2008 under head coach Urban Meyer.

As a freshman in 2007, Newton beat out fellow freshman quarterback John Brantley as the back-up for eventual Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow.

He played in five games, passing for 40 yards on 5-of-10 and rushing 16 times for 103 yards and three touchdowns.

In 2008, during his sophomore season, Newton played in the season opener against Hawaii but sustained an ankle injury and took a medical redshirt season.

On November 21, 2008, Newton was arrested on felony charges of burglary, larceny, and obstruction of justice on an accusation that he stole a laptop computer from another University of Florida student.

He was subsequently suspended from the team.

Campus police "tracked the stolen laptop to the athlete...Newton tossed the computer out his dorm window in a humorously ill-advised attempt to hide it from cops."

All charges against Newton were dropped after he completed a court-approved pre-trial diversion program.

In January 2009, Newton transferred to Blinn College in Brenham, Texas, to play for head coach Brad Franchione, son of Dennis Franchione.

That fall, he led his team to the 2009 NJCAA National Football Championship, throwing for 2,833 yards with 22 touchdowns and rushing for 655 yards.

He was named a Juco All-America honorable mention and was the most recruited Juco quarterback in the country.

Newton was ranked as the number one quarterback from either high school or junior college by Rivals.com and was the only five-star recruit.

During Newton's recruitment, Oklahoma, Mississippi State and Auburn were his three finalists.

His youngest brother, Caylin, was the quarterback for the Howard Bison in the mid-2010s.

Newton was a talented baseball and basketball player as a youth, but developed a fear of being hit by a pitch in baseball and could not avoid foul trouble on the basketball court.

He stopped playing baseball at 14 years old and quit basketball shortly into his high school career.

"I believe that a person should not be thought of as a bad person because of some senseless mistake that they made," said Newton in 2010.

"I think every person should have a second chance. If they blow that second chance, so be it for them."

Newton announced his intention to transfer from Florida three days before the Gators' national championship win over Oklahoma.

In November 2010, Thayer Evans of Fox Sports reported that Newton faced potential expulsion from the University of Florida for three instances of academic dishonesty, prior to transferring.

Following a stint with the Florida Gators, Newton played college football for the Auburn Tigers, where he won the Heisman Trophy and 2011 BCS National Championship Game as a junior.

He was selected first overall by the Panthers in the 2011 NFL draft.

Newton made an impact in his first season when he set the rookie records for passing and rushing yards by a quarterback, earning him Offensive Rookie of the Year.

The league's first rookie quarterback to throw for 4,000 yards in a season and the first to throw for 400 yards in his NFL debut, he also set the single-season record for quarterback rushing touchdowns.

Between 2013 and 2017, Newton led the Panthers to four playoff appearances and three division titles.

In his senior year, Newton was rated a five-star prospect by Rivals.com, the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in the nation, and the 14th quarterback and 28th player overall.

He received scholarship offers from Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Oklahoma, and Virginia Tech.

His most successful season came in 2015 when he was named the NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP) and helped Carolina obtain a franchise-best 15–1 record en route to an appearance in Super Bowl 50.

He is one of four African-American quarterbacks to win NFL MVP and was the first to receive it.

Following his MVP campaign, Newton struggled with injuries and the Panthers reached the playoffs only once over the next four years.

In 2015, Newton graduated from Auburn University with a degree in sociology.

Newton attended Westlake High School in Atlanta, playing for their high school football team.

As a 16-year-old junior, he passed for 2,500 yards and 23 touchdowns and ran for 638 yards and nine touchdowns, gaining the attention of major college programs.

Released ahead of his 10th season, he played for the New England Patriots in 2020.

Newton was released by the Patriots the following year and returned to the Panthers midway through the 2021 season, but was not re-signed afterwards.