Loyalty In Football, In Sports Doesn't Exist As Far As Players Are Concerned.

Earlier this year Cam Newton posted "Loyalty is everything." It was unclear who that post was directed at. On Friday Newton posted, "I'm far from perfect but loyalty, I deserve it." Again leaving the world puzzled. To make matters worse, there are pictures of Newton's facial reactions going round, directed at either McDaniels or Jones that don't look good or happy.

Now, if Cam Newton is talking to the fans, he's missing something. Carolina fans could've looked back at what he's done for them and ignored last season. However, the members of Patriots nation only have 2020 to go on. And regardless of what excuse or reason he has, he wasn't that good for 13 games. There's no reason for a fan base to stay loyal to a guy who played average to below average at best over his career with a team.

Now, if Cam was referring to the franchise he plays for that's another can of worms. First, taking grievances public is a bad thing in New England or at least it was. N'keal Harry is still here, so maybe there's a change in the Patriots' way.

Second, like with the fanbase, the team is about what have you done for me lately. It's about next man up, best man up. Newton didn't look good last year and made a lot of mistakes. Thus far in the offseason, Newton hasn't done anything to lose the job but he hasn't done anything to prove he should be the guy over Mac Jones. 

In fact majority of the media is now saying Jones should either start at some point this season or start in week one, based off what they're seeing in camp and from what they saw against Washington. The sports media owes a loyalty to the truth, not to any athlete, coach, team, or league. While starting week one maybe too early, it's a sign that Newton needs to up his game. Forget playing his game, he needs to show he can play quarterback and be a passer for the Patriots that they want him to be, and not expect McDaniels to change the passing concepts for him.

We all know from the D.T. situation in 2019 that Belichick will make agreements with players and then change or break them based on circumstances. We have no idea what conversations have been had between Newton and the Patriots, so we just don't know what's actually going on.

The fact is regardless of who the posts were about, loyalty is a thin fragile line and the qualifications for one to profess loyalty to another is very thin. While some fans & players have professed undying loyalty to Cam for various reasons that I won't get into, at the end of the day loyalty for a player goes as fast as the average career. Newton is a former first rounder and all pro, so his average career is only expected to be about a ten to eleven years. And whether he likes it or not, he's been Cam Kent (clark kent) the past few years and not Supercam. An ordinary Cam just isn't good enough to swear allegiance to.