DeAngelo Williams has only good, not great, things to say about Cam Newton

Tom Gatto

DeAngelo Williams has only good, not great, things to say about Cam Newton image
DeAngelo Williams' Twitter feuds with Panthers fans and other travelers can probably be best explained by something he said Friday: "I'm going to give you the same energy you give me."

It could also be explained this way: "I'm a heel to my core, brother." And this way, as well: "I've been called a clown many times. I'm just having fun with my toys."

Williams said all those things as he sparred in studio with Charlotte sports talk radio hosts Chris McClain and Travis Hancock. The hourlong segment on WFNZ-AM was an escalation of a social media flareup between the former Carolina running back and McClain earlier in the week over Williams' lukewarm feelings for Panthers quarterback Cam Newton.

It was stupendous radio, a forum for Williams to say why he is a petty, unapologetic troll five years after the Panthers cut him.

His seeming uncontroversial take on Newton ("He's a good quarterback; he's not great. He's a great football player.") was the same one he gave to ESPN during the week (and which riled McClain). During one contentious period, Williams played the wins card to ding Newton.

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"Facts are he did have (just) three winning seasons. He did. What quarterback do you know that got into the Hall of Fame or was great that had a losing season — what is this, Year 9 for him? — five of the eight years?" Williams said. 

When McClain noted that the first two seasons of Newton's career were spent on a rebuilding Panthers team, Williams responded, "Mac, in all due respect to you and your fans, as a fan that watched players get drafted, you are expecting the best out of them to make it to the playoffs and win the Super Bowl." Williams then brought up his former Steelers teammate Ben Roethlisberger as an example of a QB who had instant success. That spawned another spirited back-and-forth.

Williams also said something about Newton's leadership ability that surprised the hosts: Newton was never elected a captain by the players while Williams and Newton were teammates, but Newton wore a captain's "C" on his jersey just the same, signaling the Panthers organization awarded him the honor. Williams said that former wide receiver Steve Smith was the team's real leader as Newton was just starting his career.

McClain and Hancock pushed back hard on Williams' Twitter insult of a Panthers fan who referenced her late mother in a reply to a tweeter who referenced Williams' late mother to bash Williams for his analysis of Newton (yes, it's that complicated).

Williams, who believes the Panthers didn't pay enough respect after his mother died in 2014 and who tweeted at the team for not acknowledging the recent death of superfan Greg "Catman" Good, was unmoved.

"She used hers as a mortar, right?" Williams said to McClain, who disagreed.

"I'm OK with being the bad person, but what I'm not going to accept is that she started this and I ended it," Williams added.

"It's funny, because fans want the real you, but when they can't handle the real you, then they want the PC you. You're not getting a PC me, whether you like it not. If you pick up your phone or your smart tablet and tweet me, just know that what I tweet back may not be what you're looking for. . . . 'Cause she didn't have to tweet that at all. It's not like she had to tweet something."

Long story short, Williams was heel, troll and clown in his radio tour de force, and not sorry about any of it. He certainly won't apologize for not being a Cam Newton superfan.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.