Cam Newton's media career continues to have missteps, on the surface, at least.
His latest gaffe came during an appearance on ESPN's First Take, when he claimed on Friday that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish haven't been relevant in years. No, you're not misremembering the 2025 CFP title game between the Irish and the Ohio State Buckeyes, which the latter won 34-23. That happened. First Take co-host, Shae Cornette, pointed reality out to Newton on air, and many reporters pointed out how bad of a look it was.
Journalist Carron J. Phillips had a particularly poignant point that resonated on Newton's apparent poorly-researched mistake.
"Athletes took all the media jobs from journalists and used to say that we didn’t know what we were talking about, all for athletes to get into media to prove that they don’t know what they’re talking about," Phillips wrote.
Perhaps, there's more to it. Newton certainly knows better, considering the CFP selection committee quite literally just negotiated keeping a 12-team field, if and only if Notre Dame received a seed if it's ranked in the top 12. That was done because many felt the Fighting Irish were unfairly kept out of the 2025/2026 field.
There's just no way Newton doesn't realize that, being around the number of football people he's around. There's no way Newton isn't intentionally sharing bad takes. While many NFL fans don't want to hear about College Football, Newton is a legend in both. He was also born in the College Football-crazed state of Georgia.
There's simply no way he's being this obtuse unintentionally.
Cam Newton knows his role at ESPN
ESPN likes to crown certain reporters of theirs the be-all, end-all of information in their sport. Shams Charania is their NBA go-to guy, Adam Schefter is their NFL guy, Pete Thamel is their College Football guy, and, quite frankly, they're not invested enough in the other sports to have someone of that caliber elsewhere. Why be when the money is in those three sports?
If you're not one of the aforementioned reporters, you're either an X's and O's analyst, or an entertainer. More and more, ESPN is signing the latter, with guys like Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee making the most money these days at the expense of popular ball-knowers like Zach Lowe.
Newton is in that Stephen A./McAfee group. And he's never said he'd be doing anything else, nor does he need to.
Cam Newton, of all football players to ever throw on a helmet and cleats, doesn't need to explain that he understands this. This is a former NFL MVP and Heisman winner. Seven players have ever done that, by the way.
You need to understand that he's in the sports entertainment business, and bait about sports is the entertainment that's going to continue lining his and ESPN's pockets.
Have you been on X lately? Or any social media app? Every post is an ad. Somehow, some way, Newton's comments are not what they appear.