Don't touch Newton with a ten foot pole!

You didn’t like Newton before you read this and now because someone agrees with you, you feel vindicated? I’m not arguing w/ you, just merely pointing something out. What if Newton turns out to be something great? By this I mean what if the Bills, pass up on him along w/ many other teams, and he indeed turns out to be just as good as a Big Ben or an Aaron Rodgers? Would you be happy w/ the aggressive stance you took on not taking him? Or would you regret your favorite team not taking a player that could help us win? Character issues are blown out of proportion in my opinion. No one saw the Ryan Leaf debacle. No one! In fact the guy was a BEAST his first few games in the league. If we take Gabbert and he turns out to be Alex Smith and someone else takes Newton and he turns out to be something no one has ever expected, I think you will be just as upset as the rest of the people on this board. Despite the fact that all the signs of this guy being a player at this level are in all of our faces.

But I haven’t even given Newton a second thought for the Bills. To many comments by Chix that would contradict Newtion being a viable option on this team.

I don’t think that this is such a big deal. Scouts will have a chance to see and evaluate him. Is this a publicity stunt , yes, does it mean he’ll fail at the next level, no.

He has a ton of work to do in his role of being an adult. If you want to see something eye-opening, read his twitter feed. Just Google it. A real horror show.

One thing it shows, is his desire to work in the NFL. Instead of knocking him for “going the extra mile” how about acknowledging the fact he is showing his willingness to put in extra effort. It’s not like he can mail in extra resumes, so this is his method of raising his profile. Tebow did a similar move last year, so why all the angst this time around?

He’s another Akili Smith or JaMarcus Russell, except that he puts in more work into pretending he works hard.

He is NOT NFL starter material. He’s not even CFL starter matirial. Not only would I not want to touch him with a 100 foot poll, I don’t even want to see him go in the first round anymore! Mind you someone like Dan Snyder, Al Davis or the Titans are going to throw away their pick at him. Let them have fun with that, we can pass.

Are you saying you WOULD touch him with a ten foot poll?

They say good news travels fast, bad news travels faster. The news about Newtons activities at Miami spread like wildfire. One thing that did not come out of Miami, was anything questioning his work ethic. So where did it come from?

We know he was in posession of a stolen laptop and allegedly he cheated on exams. But no one on the hurricanes coaching staff or athletic department has ever been quoted as saying he’s a lazy football player. there is an article online (and a you tube video) which talks about his volunteer work and desire to own / operate a youth center. There’s another article that interviews his Auburn teammates, they talk about while attending a picnic he focused on patterns with the receivers instead of partying. His teammates said when Newton arrived on campus he was unpretentious and they made him team captain based on leadership skills and his willingness to put the team ahead of himself.

So where did these rumors of Newton being a lazy football player come from? He is clearly the most talented QB of this years draft class and yet some declare he lacks the talent to play at the pro level. If he is not pro material than logically, the OTHER lesser talented players are below semi-pro.

Newton has hired a QB consultant to “coach him up” on the aspects of his game that he must improve to play well at the pro level, yet some say he has done absolutely nothing to prove he’s a hard worker. Lazy people don’t hire people to make them work hard, C’mon man! He didn’t have to get a consultant, he could have sat back and let the offers roll in. That’s what a lazy, greedy person would do. So now he’s labeled as self centered, but his past behavior doesn’t show that. If that were the case, he certainly wouldn’t spend his free time at a youth center. Has he made mistakes? Yes, we all have our share of bad decisions but ours are out of the public spotlight.

Cheating on a college exam does not equate to being lazy. A prominent person in the military community had one of his frat brothers take his exams for him, both have gone on to be pillars in their respective communities and neither are lazy.

I suppose the next thing will be to declare he is greedy because he has product endorsements. Hershell Walker, Peyton Manning, Bo Jackson, all had endorsements right out of school. They’re not greedy people and neither is Cam Newton.

We all know that some players are more athletically gifted than others. Some players become “students of the game” others do not. Knowledge of the game does not make someone an inherently better player, especially if they lack the physical skills to use it to their advantage. Fitz is the perfect example, he is very intelligent but has a tendency to throw off target or wobbly balls at inopportune times.

Many people on this blog want to draft Locker, a QB of questionable ability because he is a “hard worker, a football player”. Many derrided Nix for signing Kelsay another “hard working football player” of questionable ability, to a big contract. One definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”.

As a Bills fan, I want to see our team draft the best QB available and that means selecting Cam Newton. They could certainly do otherwise and no doubt they will rationalize their decision regardless of who they pick. The scouting staff at OBD will dilligently research all potential draft picks and in the end we will rely on their judgement. Truth be told, we have no choice. They are shrewed judges of character or they wouldn’t be where they are. I am confident they will get to the bottom of these “lazy player” allegations, where that rumor came from and in the end, choose Cam Newton for the Buffalo Bills.