Former NFL MVP Cam Newton drummed up some great chatter last week on his podcast when he called this year’s MVP candidates including Dak Prescott, Tua Tagovailoa and Brock Purdy “game managers.” On Wednesday, Louis Riddick joined The Dan Patrick Show and called Newton “bitter” based on his desire to still be in the NFL and attack those who are.
“Cam comes off as bitter because he thinks he should still be playing,” Riddick told Patrick. “You’ve often heard him talk about the fact that he’s better than a lot of the quarterbacks still playing in the NFL. And sometimes when you have that kind of feeling, your opinion and the lens through which you look at these guys kind of becomes distorted and jaded. And you say it in a way that … makes you feel better.”
Riddick also rejects the idea of a game manager completely. As a player, Riddick competed against Troy Aikman, John Elway and Joe Montana who all had dominant rosters around them. As a scout, Riddick watched Peyton Manning maximize his prolific offensive weapons.
After Get Up spent an entire half-hour rejecting Newton’s take and making him the butt of their joke, another ESPN analyst was pretty bothered as well.
“These guys then and now were considered some of the greats to ever play the game, and they had Hall of Famers all around them,” Riddick said. “It’s become stupid … the way we are trying to individualize the game.”
More broadly, Riddick accused Newton of falling into the familiar trap in media of raising the bar for athletes solely to have something to nitpick them on.
“We move goalposts so damn much in this business,” Riddick said. “And we have such weird, weird ways of categorizing elite versus not.”
While Newton is embracing life as a podcast host, he has been open about wanting back into the NFL.
But it does seem that his desire to play again is affecting his analysis.
