National Football League

Cam Newton still loves the Falcons

Published Jul. 15, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

You are born and shortly thereafter you pick your team — Broncos, 76ers, Cardinals, whatever — and you stick with that team for life, no matter what, and we say there is nobility in that.

So Cam Newton grew up an Atlanta Falcons fan and then he got so good at football that he got to play in the NFL but — uh oh — the Falcons didn't draft him and the Carolina Panthers did. A division rival!

What's a sports fan to do? Well, Newton ... hey, you know, he still loves the Falcons.

“It’s always a heavily critiqued game,” Newton told or told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I’ve always been a Falcons fan, and I’m still a Falcons fan except for those two times a year.”

This seems innocent enough. This is just sports, after all. Then again, this is sports and — more to the point — this is AMERICAN FOOBAW. This is serious business, and Newton is going to catch plenty of crap for it.

Not that that's ever slowed him down before.