Mike Mccarn/Associated Press
The Carolina Panthers portrayed their decision to part after nine seasons with quarterback Cam Newton as a magnanimous gesture. They announced last week that they were granting him, the best player in franchise history, permission to seek a trade.
But as teams around the N.F.L. scurried to add quarterbacks, Newton languished in a sort-of purgatory, neither part of Carolina’s plans nor openly desired by another team, at least with his health uncertain. He lingered there until Tuesday, when the Panthers, with no leverage to push for compensation, released him. It was an unceremonious, if by now expected, conclusion to his career in Carolina, where his Superman-referencing touchdown celebrations, sartorial panache and dazzling, if sometimes uneven, play vaulted the Panthers into relevance.