Why Cam Newton is not on Twitter -- and other Cam notes

Cam Newton held a revealing news conference Wednesday during his weekly media availability. After being around Newton for a season-and-a-half now, I’d say it was the most I’ve ever seen Newton let his guard down in a roomful of reporters. He was charismatic – as he often is – but also sounded more open than usual.



Among the highlights:



-- Many athletes have embraced Twitter as a way to talk directly to fans, but Newton does not tweet. He was asked: Why not?



Speaking hypothetically, Newton said: “The social media world has turned into they want to hear about the Steve Smith or Jonathan Stewart drunk on North Tryon rather than he’s on North Tryon giving away turkeys. One wrong tweet to the wrong person could lead into so much.



“I think if you do 10 tweets, you do nine amazing tweets they still don’t outweigh the one bad tweet a person may send off. You may send an ex-girlfriend your real feelings on how you feel and she sends it to TMZ or sends it to The Charlotte Observer.”



-- Newton said he had had numerous one-on-one conversations with players and coaches – and one with team owner Jerry Richardson – since Richardson fired general manager Marty Hurney Monday. “That’s the nature of this business,” Newton said. “And I got a full dose of what this business really is like on Monday…. There were some things I feel I could have done for Marty to keep his job…. I’m talking about my play on the field…. I have the utmost respect [for Hurney]…. And I just know Mr. Richardson is going for it in the manner he thinks this team has to go. And I’m all in cahoots with him.”


-- On getting criticized nationally for immaturity, a personal lack of leadership or simply not playing as well: “One thing that I’m not going to do is I’m not going to worry what people think of me in this setting. Because I guarantee you, if I was cussing everybody out and we’re 6-0: ‘Oh, that’s just Cam being Cam.’ You’ve got the likes of Mike Tyson, Dennis Rodman, Charles Barkley -- guys who have gone on and had that M.O. [and were able to get away with it, because they won – this was Newton’s point]…. Dennis Rodman, they knew he was going to get all the boards and that was just his M.O. When he came in with green hair, that’s Dennis. I guarantee if they were 0-82, he would have been out of the league way faster than he was. All the athletes I named were phenomenal athletes and they excelled at what they did.”




I'll have a lot more from Newton in my column that will be published in Thursday's newspaper. UPDATE: HERE'S the column link.