NFL
Bill Belichick Just Gave Cam Newton Another Ringing Endorsement
Joe Kozlowski began his career as a sports journalist in 2013 and joined Sportscasting in 2019. He covers the NBA and soccer for Sportscasting, with specialties in legacy NBA players such as Michael Jordan and Premier League club Arsenal. Off the clock, he's a Kansas City Chiefs fan and a hockey goalie. Growing up loving Shaquille O'Neal and reading everything he could about the great big men throughout NBA history — likely because he was still tall enough, at least relative to his peers, to play center — he's continued to love learning about and exploring the historical and story-based sides of the basketball archives. As for Arsenal, Joe spent a year living in London and latched onto the local support of the club. He's barely missed a match since, loving Arsene Wenger, enduring the Banter Era, and following along through rebuilds. The Premier League interest developed into a passionate following of the Champions League, Europe's big five league, and international soccer as a whole when played at the highest level. Regardless of the sport, Joe is captivated by the stories of athletes beyond the box scores and how they push the envelope — both in terms of what we think a human is capable of accomplishing and how they find new competitive tactics to win.
Get to know Joe Kozlowski betterPublished22 Sep 2020
While Bill Belichick may be a living legend, he’s not exactly an open book. The coach seems to enjoy press conferences and media availability as much as a trip to the dentist; it’s an obligation that must be fulfilled, not a chance to hold court and crack jokes with reporters. In recent weeks, however, Belichick has been a bit more verbose about one particular topic: Cam Newton.
While the Patriots boss doesn’t always issue public praise, he seems to be pretty impressed with Cam Newton. In particular, the quarterback’s work ethic may have won Belichick over.
Bill Belichick replaced Tom Brady with Cam Newton
RELATED: Quarterbacks Tom Brady and Cam Newton Have a Stake in the Same Surprising Organization
For the past 20 years, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady have been a packaged deal. During 2020, though, their partnership finally came to an end.
In March, of course, Brady officially hit free agency and signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. While it’s not exactly clear what motivated him to move to Florida—there’s been no shortage of speculation, though—it did make one thing clear: Belichick would need a new starting quarterback.
Faced with playing either Brian Hoyer of Jarrett Stidham, the Patriots went out and signed Cam Newton. The move immediately raised some eyebrows.
Belichick, for better or worse, has built a reputation as a no-nonsense coach; winning is his top priority, and, in Tom Brady, he had a complimentary piece. Cam Newton, however, has no problem making headlines, with his outfits, social media posts, and, occasionally, his decision-making. It seemed to be only a matter of time until this footballing odd couple blew up or put aside their differences and found common ground.
Thankfully for New England Patriots fans, it looks like the latter has happened.
Bill Belichick keeps praising his quarterback’s work ethic
At the risk of trafficking in buzz words, Bill Belichick likes players who buckle down, work hard, and do their job. Based on his public comments, it sounds like Cam Newton is doing just that.
At the end of August, Belichick heaped praise on Newton during a Sirius XM NFL Radio appearance. “He’s an extremely hard worker,” the coach explained, according to NBC Sports. “Nobody works harder than Cam does. He’s here early. He stays late and he works very hard.” He also highlighted Newton’s drive to “improve on a daily basis” and his desire to be the best.
Those weren’t just one-off comments, though. After the Patriots’ Week 2 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, Belichick gave another ringing endorsement of Cam Newton’s work ethic.
“Cam’s worked really hard on his throwing mechanics. I’ve seen significant improvement during that time. Cam’s the type of guy that when you point something out to him and ask him to work on it, he works very hard and he really tries to do it the way you ask him to do it,” Belichick explained, according to Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald. “He works very hard on fundamentals and techniques and the execution of the passing game and the results have been positive.”
Cam Newton has impressed his Patriots teammates, too
Bill Belichick isn’t the only one praising Cam Newton’s work ethic, though. The quarterback has also impressed at least one veteran player in the Patriots’ locker room.
“I’m sitting on the plane, and this guy’s studying his playbook the entire six-hour flight out here,” 13-year special teams player Matthew Slater explained, according to NESN’s Zack Cox. “We’re really fortunate to have him as our quarterback and one of the leaders on our team.”
Coming into the 2020 season, Cam Newton took a cheap ‘show-me’ deal in order to prove that he still had what it took to be an NFL quarterback. Based on his on-field performances, plus some ringing endorsements from Bill Belichick and the Patriots players, he’s well on his way to proving his worth and earning a legitimate contract.
