Cam Newton says the lesson he carried out of ESPN was simple: control your own lane.
After ESPN cut several on-air personalities this week, including Newton, NFL analyst Ryan Clark and former “Sunday Night Baseball” lead voice Karl Ravech, the former Patriots quarterback said the experience only reinforced his belief that a personal platform matters.
“If you don’t own your own platform, you’re going to get overlooked, bypassed and be extinct just like dinosaurs,” Newton said during an episode of his weekly sports show, “4th&1.”
Newton’s “4th&1” YouTube page has grown to more than 550,000 subscribers since launching in 2023, and he said that reach gives him a path to keep building in media no matter what happens elsewhere. He made clear he doesn’t see the ESPN exit as the end of anything.
“It’s unfortunate what happened to me, some would think, but I’m good,” Newton said. “4th &1 ain’t going nowhere. Funky Friday ain’t going nowhere.”
Newton had been a contributor on ESPN’s “First Take,” and he said he went into that role with his eyes open. For him, the job was as much about learning as it was about visibility.
“I knew that was what my intentions were,” Newton said. “They knew that was what my intentions were.
I was counseled to say ‘Cam, there’s not another platform in your field on linear television like ESPN. Those were true words that could not have been spoke any clearer.
“You can’t make me hate ESPN. What I’ve learned, it was an internship almost … they’re the leading sports source for a reason.”
He compared the atmosphere at ESPN to being in an NFL locker room, and said he wasn’t blindsided by the layoff even if he wasn’t expecting it. In his view, the business has always worked this way.
“This is a part of the business. Is it unfortunate?
Absolutely. You tell me a person that was happy that they were let go or parted ways, and I’ll show you a liar.”
Newton, the 2015 NFL MVP, spent the 2020 season with the Patriots before rookie Mac Jones beat him out in training camp in 2021 and New England released him that summer. He said that moment made this week’s news easier to absorb.
“The day Matt Patricia and Bill Belichick released me from the New England Patriots was the day that nothing else could surprise me in business and I’m grateful that I have that to be able to refer to because not a lot of people are able to say I’ve been there before.”
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