Robert Griffin III thinks Cam Newton needs to pump the brakes.
Newton spent most of this season tearing down Drake Maye and the New England Patriots, starting with calling their 9-2 record “fool’s gold” back in November and continuing through last week when he labeled the MVP favorite a “game manager” rather than a “game-changer” on his 4th & 1 podcast. Now Griffin, who’s carved out his own media career since retiring, is telling Newton he’s missing the point entirely.
“I always want to see other guys get into the media game and have success,” Griffin said on his Outa Pocket with RGIII podcast. “And I think Cam, in some ways, is missing the mark here.”
Griffin didn’t mince words about what Newton’s getting wrong. This isn’t about Drake Maye’s talent, the Patriots’ schedule, or whether Josh McDaniels deserves more credit than the second-year quarterback. This is about timing and purpose, about understanding when criticism serves a function and when it just becomes noise for the sake of noise.
“If I could give any advice to my guy — and he doesn’t have to take it. He’s fully entrenched in this media game, and I don’t want to say getting clicks in all that, but he’s fully entrenched in that. He’s a full-time content creator, and his platforms are doing incredible,” Griffin said. “Just take a step back and ask yourself: ‘Is this helping?’ Because Drake Maye loves the guy. He loves him. And you don’t want to be that guy. There’s so many players that hate players that are in the media because of things like that. That’s not worth the click.”
The Patriots quarterback grew up in Charlotte and has mentioned multiple times that Newton was his childhood hero. When Newton first started criticizing him and the team back in November, Maye tried to take the high road by saying he didn’t even know what show Newton was on. That response prompted Stephen A. Smith to call Maye a liar on First Take, which kicked off weeks of manufactured drama that Maye never asked for in the first place.
Newton has doubled down repeatedly since then. He’s questioned whether Maye is a top-five quarterback. He’s attributed the Patriots’ success to Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels rather than their second-year quarterback. He’s pointed to the firing of Jerod Mayo and Alex Van Pelt as evidence that Maye wasn’t good enough in his rookie season. And most recently, he used the dreaded “game manager” label while wearing Patriots gear and making sure to mention his subscriber count.
The whole thing has been textbook Cam Newton in 2026. He knows exactly what gets attention. He knows how to frame his takes to generate maximum engagement. He’s mastered the art of criticism that stops just short of being personal while still feeling deeply personal to the player on the receiving end. It’s smart if you’re trying to build a media brand. It’s less smart if you care about relationships with players who actually looked up to you.
“Support that young man, and then when he starts to falter, then you can give constructive criticism,” Griffin said. “But to give criticism when he’s rising, and he’s balling, and he’s about to win MVP, that’s unnecessary.”
Griffin has been in Newton’s position. He’s had to figure out how to transition from being a player to being a media personality. He knows the temptation to generate engagement by going after current players, especially when those players are having success. But he also seems to understand that there’s a line between being honest and being unnecessarily harsh, between offering legitimate criticism and just piling on for clicks.
Of course, Newton can keep doing what he’s doing. But the fellow Heisman Trophy winner is making it clear what the cost is.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.