New England Patriots fans are new to this feeling, but Auburn football fans have been scarred over the last 12 years by the mortal enemy Alabama Crimson Tide winning the National Championship in half of those seasons.
Patriots fans have been used to bullying their supposed “rivals” in the form of the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, and even many of Peyton Manning’s teams throughout the 2000s. Now, with Tom Brady taking Rob Gronkowski with him to Tampa Bay and winning a seventh Super Bowl ring, Bill Belichick is now on the defensive like never before.
Perhaps that’s what makes Cam Newton the perfect quarterback for the occasion that is the 2021 season in Foxborough. After Alabama broke a 17-year title drought to win the BCS National Championship game in 2010, Newton famously fired back in one of the greatest sporting feats of all time: leading Auburn football to a 2011 National Championship victory.
In one of the most dramatic seasons ever–one that included “scam Newton”, a road victory in the Iron Bowl, and Harvey Updyke poisoning the trees at Toomer’s Corner–Newton’s Tigers stood tall at the end of it following six wins over ranked teams and a 39-point win in the SEC championship.
In 2021, Brady is ‘Bama. The Patriots are the team with the chip on their shoulder…and do coincidentally have two quarterbacks who started under center on the Plains at the top of the depth chart.
Cam Newton was born for this moment. And he will get the chance to seize it:
BREAKING: The #Patriots are re-signing QB Cam Newton to a one-year deal, according to a league source. https://t.co/cEqlg8zSXb
— Jim McBride (@globejimmcbride) March 12, 2021
Credit my co-editor Mary Kate Hughes for calling the Newton-to-New England possibility:
"Perhaps Newton can still be brought back, though, to push the incoming college QB in camp…and maybe even win the job himself.Newton credited his poor season to not being able to fully recover from the Coronavirus, where he missed weeks four and five of the season. If Belichick truly does hold such a high opinion of Cam Newton, and the feeling is mutual, it’s possible a second chance with the Patriots could be on the Auburn football alum’s horizon."
Good luck to Cam Newton, and War Eagle to the Patriots’ top two signal-callers!