He deserved better than the way his long-term relationship with the Carolina Panthers ended, with him officially released by the franchise that drafted him No. 1 overall in 2011.
Lest we forget, the Panthers were largely an NFL afterthought before Newton arrived: sure they qualified for the playoffs every 2-3 years, and they even made it to a Super Bowl. But their straight-out-of-the-90s teal-and-black color combination and the fact they played in a smaller city didn’t help their cause.
Charlotte a decade ago isn’t the Charlotte of now. The city’s population has exploded, with its financial services sector becoming a major draw for millennials.