Cam Newton has finally addressed that viral fight video and admitted he's "disappointed" in himself.
In the latest episode of his podcast 4th and 1, Newton said there's more to the story than the video of his fight at a 7-on-7 football tournament in Atlanta leads people to believe. He explained that he's "disappointed" in himself for letting the situation escalate, but he also wanted to clarify a few things. "I know and knew exactly who that was, they were former coaches up under my organization C1N," he said at the 31-minute point of the video, as seen above. "There was a lot of different clips that was going on, 'Kids jumping on Cam.' These were coaches. These were grown men. Former coaches."
He directly namedropped TJ and Steph Brown, two men who admitted their involvement in the fight. They also accused Newton of trash-talking and instigating the whole incident. Newton confirmed they joined C1N sometime around 2018, but have since left the organization. "The truth of the matter is this: Me being in my position, I never should have never put myself in that position," he said. "That shit could have got ugly, like, for real. That's why I'm trying to bring the seriousness to the situation. We can laugh about it, we can play and I will always try to bring humor into something that's light-hearted. But this is a serious situation."
He suggested that the situation could have gotten much worse than it actually played out, whether it was an injury on his part or the coaches who got physical.
"I let my emotions get the best of me, and it should not have been called for," he continued. "With that, I apologize to anybody affected. That's Steph, that's TJ. That's their organization. That's C1N, my organization. That's my players, my parents, my staff members. When you really debrief from days after, it really puts things into perspective." He said that he feels like he let a lot of people down, which is why he's admitted that it's important to stay in control of his emotions.
"It's just not called for," he said. "I could play the victim and I'm not going to do that. I'm going to hold myself to that same standard. To say, like, look... Everywhere that I go people talk. People say, 'Yo why didn't you jump on the fumble.' 'Hey, Von Miller your daddy.' ... I'm used to playing in front of 100,000 people, and millions watching. And I let one person dictate how I feel? No, I can't do that. But I did that day."
Ultimately, he regrets the situation and how it played out. "Yeah, I apologize," he said. "I apologize, Steph. I apologize, TJ. I see what y'all doing. I could call it what it was, it was some words that was said and I think the words triggered them. And it was words that triggered me. So with that, I know what they do for the kids, I know their level of commitment to impacting or using their platform in a positive way in the community."
Complex caught up with Newton a few weeks before the fight and he highlighted all the good his 7-on-7 league has done for the community.
Police who responded to the fight said that no one required medical attention and no one wanted to press charges. Newton added that he is still committed to "giving back" through his 7-on-7 youth football program.
Check out what Newton had to say about the fight above.
