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Cam Newton says he wouldn't trade NFL MVP for Super Bowl win: 'I did my job'

It is beyond a cliché for an athlete to say winning a Super Bowl is more important than an individual award, to the point that any top NFL quarterback asked will almost go out of his way to disregard the MVP award. Josh Allen does it. Lamar Jackson does it.

Cam Newton, however, does not.

The former Carolina Panthers quarterback, now working as a professional opinion-haver on ESPN's "First Take," bucked conventional wisdom on Thursday when asked by Stephen A. Smith if he would trade his MVP award for a Super Bowl win.

Clearly expecting Newton to prefer the Super Bowl he never won to the MVP, Smith was visibly shocked when Newton responded with a blunt "no."

Skewering Smith's question as a "journalistic viewpoint," Newton asked whether impact or championships are more important before laying out his full thoughts, which included name-checking three non-elite quarterbacks who won a Super Bowl:

"Everybody's not going to be Michael Jordan. Everybody's not going to be Patrick Mahomes. Everybody's not going to be these individuals who have the luxury of saying 'Hey, I not only dominated this sport, but I also have championships to back it.'

“Let me remind you, Brad Johnson won a Super Bowl. Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl. Respectfully, Nick Foles won a Super Bowl. So, yes, when you look at those guys and you say, ‘OK, what's more important? Would you have preferred to win a Super Bowl?’ I think that’s the humble approach, but if we’re being honest, the impact of you holding yourself accountable to say everybody has a responsibility to do, and you can say as an MVP award winner or an All-American, you’ve held your end of the bargain down. That's what it really comes down to for me.

"I know that’s not the popular pick, I’m not trying to be popularized! My take is, I’m taking individual success because I did my job. Football is not about one guy trying to do 11 jobs, it’s 11 guys doing one job.”

The exchange was elevated both by Newton's enormous hat and the expression of his co-panelist, Jason McCourty, who won Super Bowl LIII with the New England Patriots.

Jason McCourty listening to Cam Newton. (ESPN)

Newton played 11 seasons in the NFL and reached the Super Bowl once, which also happened to be his MVP season. He led the 2015 Panthers to a 15-1 regular season record and Super Bowl 50, which they lost 24-10 to Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos.

Outside of that one season, Newton's Panthers team was notably lacking in the kind of talent teams need to win the Super Bowl. Clearly, Newton didn't think he was part of the problem, though his decline after that season, partially brought on by injuries, was noticeable.

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