In splashy return, Newton gives ‘big ups’ to Tepper before pounding Panthers’ drum
At 4:31 on Saturday afternoon, in front of a roaring, near-delirious, sold-out wild-card-playoff crowd at Bank of America Stadium, Cam Newton picked up the big mallet, raised it aloft, then wound up into a swing that leveraged every ounce of his 250 pounds.
The only thing that could have made the occasion more fitting, at least symbolically, would have been if he’d used a hatchet to strike the Carolina Panthers’ giant “Keep Pounding” drum.
It had been 1,476 days since Newton — the former-MVP-quarterback who led the Panthers to within a few quarters of a Super Bowl victory a decade ago — last was the center of attention on the artificial turf of Bank of America Stadium, where he closed out his storied tenure with the team with a loss that preceded the termination of his contract.
Four long years, during which the relationship between the flashy, flamboyant player and the sometimes-stodgy organization that turned him into a Charlotte legend seemed to spoil, turning almost rotten at times.
But in the run-up to Carolina’s game against the heavily favored Los Angeles Rams, Newton was …
… well, perhaps better to let Cam himself put it into his own words, loudly, as he did earlier in the afternoon on a small stage at the Roaring Riot fan club’s big-deal tailgate just down the hill from the stadium: “I’m BAAA-aaaaaaaaack!”
The live-on-YouTube streaming of Newton’s “4th & 1” podcast marked the unofficial kickoff to Saturday’s much-ballyhooed homecoming for the 36-year-old ex-Panther — a homecoming that took shape quickly after the team first teased, on Wednesday, that he’d be the honorary “Keep Pounding” drummer for the biggest home game of the season.
Fans started queuing up for the event around 8 a.m. next to the 1st Row Warehouse Lofts, 4½ hours ahead of the lunchtime show, which was set up behind the historic Defiance Sock Mills building. By noontime, the line snaked away from the entrance for several blocks.
Then, just after 12:30, Newton emerged through a door cut into the back of the red-brick structure, strutting and slapping fans’ hands while decked out in types of Panthers paraphernalia and other accoutrements that few would dare to try to pull off: a mostly white throwback pullover Panthers Starter jacket; a blue-gray fedora adorned with “Newton 1” on the side and “Keep Pounding” under the bill; a black bandana around his neck; Steve McQueen sneakers on his feet.
But on even bigger and bolder display than Newton’s personal fashion statements were his sentimental statements — the ones he used to express his feelings about coming back to Charlotte in such a splashy capacity.
“Hey, listen,” he said, during his introductory remarks to a parking lot full of fans wearing team jerseys that seemed to lean heavily toward Newton’s “1” and an array of numbers belonging to his fellow members of the 2015 squad. “I’m overwhelmed with passion, joy. … It’s an honor to be able to have given this city half of what you guys have given me.”
A few beats later, Newton told his co-host, “I’m trying to take it all in, Peg. I’m trying to take it all in, you know what I’m sayin’? Like, this is a pinch-me moment. For the first time in my life, this is me experiencing a Panthers game without being a member of the Panthers.”
He smiled, warmly, as the word “Panthers” escaped his lips — something he hasn’t always been able to do, for reasons that would require a much longer story. But the facts, to catch up anyone in the dark about the past friction between Newton and the Carolina Panthers organization, are these:
He was the No. 1 overall pick of the 2011 draft when Jerry Richardson owned the team and Ron Rivera was its head coach. He went on to lead the Panthers to three consecutive NFC South titles, from 2013 to 2015, and dabbed and handed footballs to fans on his way to an MVP season and Carolina’s second-ever Super Bowl bid. But after 2015, he got them back to the playoffs just one more time, was released before the 2020 season, only to return for a half-season in 2021 that didn’t yield much success, either. He never officially retired, and under new owner David Tepper, the team never quite gave him the respect he felt he deserved.
Perhaps most famously, in November 2024, on the same podcast he brought to Charlotte for Saturday’s playoff game, he vented about feeling snubbed by the organization on multiple occasions in recent years.
But all seems to be forgiven now.
“Giving big ups to David Tepper for even making that call to get me here today,” Newton said Saturday in response to a question about his legacy from a fan who described the player as “one of the guys to make it cool to be a Panthers fan again.”
“It’s so much love,” Newton continued, “and I even had to tell Mr. Tepper — I said, Mr. Tepper … I don’t know what you feel, but you will never make me not love this place.”
If on paper that might sound defiant, in context the Panthers great was pretty clearly trying to articulate that any past friction between the two sides didn’t reflect how he felt about Charlotte and Panthers fans. “It’s almost like two parents, kind of,” Newton explained. “‘No, I want the best for the child.’ ‘No, I want the best for the child!’ Well, we both want the best (for the child).”
It was, in addition to a fence-mending exercise, a bit of a greatest-hits show for Newton at the tailgate.
Over the course of about 75 minutes, the conversations dripped with nostalgia, as he and his podcast co-host Omari “Peggy” Collins trotted out a parade of former teammates who were part of the Panthers’ 2015 Super Bowl run: running back Jonathan Stewart, defensive end Thomas Davis Sr., backup QB Joe Webb, and middle linebacker Luke Kuechly.
For a little while there, it was worth wondering whether the hatchet-burying might extend to sometime-nemesis Steve Smith Sr., a similarly legendary Panther, who has himself been critical of Newton. Although the wide receiver did not turn out to be a surprise special guest, in another nice moment, Newton shouted out Smith as “the pulse of Carolina.”
Smith, in fact — albeit to a lesser degree — has at times had a contentious relationship with the Panthers, mainly as it pertained to the five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver’s contentious exit from the team in 2014. So it was energizing for fans to see Smith march out to midfield before the game to hype up the crowd with his booming voice and his still-massive arms.
But the man of the hour Saturday, to be sure, was Newton.
There would be a ton of noise made by Panthers fans in the gripping game once it started, for Bryce Young and Chuba Hubbard and Jalen Coker and others. As pre-game festivities go, though, they rarely get as deafeningly loud as they did when Newton first appeared on the Jumbotron at 4:31 p.m., standing at the ready, still in that Starter jacket and that fedora, underneath flashing lights in the home-team tunnel.
He began walking, then nodding, emerging into daylight with head down and a finger pointed to the sky. He stopped, leaned his head back, opened his mouth as if to say Ahhhhhhhhh, put two fists on his sternum, then slowwwly pulled them to his armpits, making like Superman for the first time in years.
Bank of America Stadium practically shook.
Then Cam Newton picked up that mallet — that hatchet, if you will — and once, then twice, then three times, then a fourth, he buried it into that drum.
This story was originally published January 10, 2026 at 6:23 PM with the headline "In splashy return, Newton gives ‘big ups’ to Tepper before pounding Panthers’ drum."
