169 replies to this topic

[King Taharqa]

Sorry, but a leader doesn't talk with his head down at press conferences and refuse to make eye contact with anyone all while spewing disegenious drivel and asking for a "suggestion box" about how to improve.


Remember: the ONLY thing HE can control, is Cameron Newton.

Sorry, leaders dont hide while their young QB takes all the criticism PUBLICLY. Kalil boasted in the preseason about us going to the Super Bowl, where is he or the other O linemen right now? They are hiding. In Flacco's first few years in Baltimore, Ray Lewis took on the role as LEADER. He didnt hide from the media, he didnt let the media dart his QB to death so he didnt have to be accountable, he stepped up and led in the locker room and ON THE FIELD OF PLAY. Half our captains and leaders dont do that. They are guys who are used to losing, but are professional about it. A leader would not accept his team losing 30+ games over a 3 year span, but our "leaders" have done just that. You guys want rah rah guys, and think thats the be all end all to leadership. Tell you what, make those guys you think are that coaches and stop wasting roster spots on guys who cant play anymore, but are locker room "faves".

[King Taharqa]

In the offseason Jon Beason displayed LEADERSHIP when he defended his young QB from a shitty statement Alex Smith made. Beason IS a leader, unfortunately because of his injuries and the fact we've already drafted his replacement, he hasnt had much of an effect on our team during the Rivera Era.

[PanthersBigD]

Cam is the biggest leader in the locker room right now. Which is unfortunate because guys who've been here almost 10 years arent. Some of us mistake professional losers (meaning guys who accept losing, but are professional about it) with leadership. There's no one in that locker room that displays leadership on the field week to week like Cameron. There's no one in that locker room who is held accountable for their play the way Cameron is. Thats why I expect a lot of those guys to be gone in the offseason. We're undergoing a cultural change, and part of that change is ridding ourselves of professional nice guys that accept losing. That is not LEADERSHIP, that is complacency.

To actually be a leader, you have to have someone willing to follow. I don't see anyone lining up or rallying behind Newton, for more than the sake of appearances. He's a young, unpolished player, with HUGE potential, but he's not a leader of men yet. Whether he will be or not remains to be seen. He does pout too much, and he does respond to criticism with too much sarcasm. He needs to harness his emotions better as a leader. I'm not saying I could do it, but I'm not getting paid millions of dollars and I don't have multiple championships as my personal goal like he does.

You don't have to be humble or unassuming to be a good leader, you just have to be doing something worth others following your lead. If he were a wide receiver or a defensive end, this leadership mantle wouldn't be thrust upon him like it is, but that's life.

I hope he's got it in him. I feel like if he just does a little growing up emotionally, that he can be the guy to take us to a championship. He's got the physical tools.

[King Taharqa]

no offense, but that's a cop-out. he doesn't need to worry about those guys. there's only a couple of them there. the rest of the team, tho, is young and quite capable of being molded into something better.

i've said it quite a few times. cam has one of the most infectious personalities i've seen. we've all seen the positive effect that he can have on people. he's known for being able to walk into a room and win it over with just his smile. with blinn and auburn he was primarily responsible for those two team's national championships and if you watched him at auburn you essentially saw him will his team back from pretty significant deficits because he knew what everyone there was capable of.

he walked into those situations and ended up owning them. he got those teams fired up in a big way and he could do the very same thing here...but he's not buying it himself yet. i'm sure he gets frustrated at what others do, but i think he gets more frustrated at what he does...the mistakes he makes and he can't shake it off. that feeling of "oh crap. here it goes again" comes from him as much as any and as soon as people on the team see him feeling defeated, the rest of the team will become infected with the same doubt he feels.

if he can somehow rise above his situation he'll be able to get the others to do the same. once he pulls that off, this team is going to start winning consistently and there's not any bad coaching that would keep that from happening. there's no 30+ year old with a loser complex is going to be able to get in his way.

if he can get his mindset back to where it was at blinn and auburn, he can get this team's mindset back where it needs to be.

should all that be on his shoulders? probably not, but it is.

His mindset is the same as it was at Blinn and Auburn. Losing will not be tolerated. Unfortunately this organization and players have a mindset that losing is OK, just be a professional about it. Might explain why we've lost so many games the past few years. There is no leadership from the front office on down in Panthers organization, yet our 23 year old QB is supposed to be a PERFECT EXAMPLE of leadership.

[King Taharqa]

To actually be a leader, you have to have someone willing to follow. I don't see anyone lining up or rallying behind Newton, for more than the sake of appearances. He's a young, unpolished player, with HUGE potential, but he's not a leader of men yet. Whether he will be or not remains to be seen. He does pout too much, and he does respond to criticism with too much sarcasm. He needs to harness his emotions better as a leader. I'm not saying I could do it, but I'm not getting paid millions of dollars and I don't have multiple championships as my personal goal like he does.

You don't have to be humble or unassuming to be a good leader, you just have to be doing something worth others following your lead. If he were a wide receiver or a defensive end, this leadership mantle wouldn't be thrust upon him like it is, but that's life.

I hope he's got it in him. I feel like if he just does a little growing up emotionally, that he can be the guy to take us to a championship. He's got the physical tools.

Cam's leadership is the last thing I worry about. If guys dont want to follow him or are OK with losing, they need to go. PERIOD. We have too many players on our roster who are content with losing, long as that check comes Monday, and the national and local spotlight doesnt shine on them.

[TheRed]

You guys read this drivel and get all worked up every time. Rinse and repeat.

Ignore it and keep it moving.

[Vampire the buffet slayer]

Oddly enough it is damn near impossible to find 2012 post game interviews of Drew Brees on the internet, almost as if they dont exist.

I mean Wtf are you supposed to do in that situation? Lie? Come out and act like everythings just great?

I dont know what you guys want from him, but all I want is wins.

[TonyN]

The real point here IMHO, is that poor play coupled with what is perceived as a sh.tty attitude by many, will sink Cam Newton's ship far sooner that it otherwise would. He will be safe if he starts playing great football. He will be safe for a long while if he slowly improves and cuts out the BS sulking and pouting and mans-up when talking to the media. But he had better do one or the other or he won't get a new contract from the Carolina Panthers. And he may not make it through next season...

[King Taharqa]

Cam has no reason to be upset when the Panthers win, unfortunately losing is a way of life here, so we overconcern ourselves with how he acts in press conferences. If we were winners, no one would care. The culture of losing.

If Cam doesnt get a new contract from the Panthers, he will get one somewhere else. You can tell some of you guys ONLY follow the Panthers, Cam is coveted by many fanbases STILL. In 10 years most of the QBs in the NFL will be similar to Newton.

[TonyN]

Cam Newton School of Leadership:

Score a touchdown in the fourth quarter to cut the opponets lead to 16 so you brush away your teammates celebrating in the endzone so you can go through your solo "SUPERMAN" routine as the 28th ranked passer in the NFL...

Down late in a game?: bury your head in a towel at the end of the bench...if others don't follow your example and foolishly continue to remain interested in fighting to the final whistle: that's on them.

Reporter got the audacity to ask you a question? Roll your eyes and keep your head down and ever so grudgingly and not very convincingly sort of semi-admit that YOU might be able to play better and then ask for a suggestion box on how to improve.

My God !!! How can anyone question this man's leadership???

Why wouldn't his 76 year old owner go to any length to continue to cultivate his talent???

[Hawk]

Cam is the biggest leader in the locker room right now. Which is unfortunate because guys who've been here almost 10 years arent. Some of us mistake professional losers (meaning guys who accept losing, but are professional about it) with leadership. There's no one in that locker room that displays leadership on the field week to week like Cameron. There's no one in that locker room who is held accountable for their play the way Cameron is. Thats why I expect a lot of those guys to be gone in the offseason. We're undergoing a cultural change, and part of that change is ridding ourselves of professional nice guys that accept losing. That is not LEADERSHIP, that is complacency.

no mystery that you and I don't see eye to eye on much....but I'm curious where you got all this factual information from?

you hanging out in the locker room these days?

[rayzor]

His mindset is the same as it was at Blinn and Auburn. Losing will not be tolerated. Unfortunately this organization and players have a mindset that losing is OK, just be a professional about it. Might explain why we've lost so many games the past few years. There is no leadership from the front office on down in Panthers organization, yet our 23 year old QB is supposed to be a PERFECT EXAMPLE of leadership.

perfect example of leadership? nah....

losing is not acceptable. that is something that has to change in the lockerroom.

that's not what i'm talking about. cam's not the same guy that can overcome the way he was before getting here. he lost. he made mistakes. and now he's got to figure out what to do with it.

he's got to be an overcomer. he's got to be a guy who can come back when he's down. he forgot how to do that. it's not all on his shoulders, but he's got to believe in himself again and i don't think he does anymore. i don't think it will take much for him to gain his confidence back, but he's got to get it back somehow. he has no control over the amount of influence he has over others. it's natural for him. once he gets on fire others will follow suit. the problem is that when he's lacking confidence those that look up to him (which is pretty much everyone) will start to doubt themselves as well.

i think he absolutely can be the type of emotional leader ray lewis has been in baltimore. instead of pumping others up, tho, he needs it himself. until that changes, he's not going to have the impact ray lewis has.

this isn't absolving anyone of anything. there is an apathetic culture there that accepts mediocrity that fox and hurney created and there's going to have to be a pretty big turnover in personality, but a large part of the transformation to a fighting culture is going to be cam getting others fired up.

[Sloth]

no mystery that you and I don't see eye to eye on much....but I'm curious where you got all this factual information from?

you hanging out in the locker room these days?

Name one thing in the post you quoted that would take being in the locker room to ascertain.

Not one person on the team has come out to take any responsibility or blame other than Newton and there is plenty of blame to go around for this miserable season. OLine has sucked all season, Gross is silent as a mouse and Kalil may be dead for all the noise he's made. One of our RBs makes passive aggressive tweets while both look pretty average. Beason? Silent as a mouse. Johnson spends most of his time fighting with fans on twitter. Hell, our coach tosses players under the bus at every press conference he gives and that's our literal team leader.

The only person I see owning up to anything is Newton and he gets slammed regardless. He's pretty much the face of a pathetic franchise where half of it's fans and local media tear him down weekly.

Who do you see taking on a leadership role?