Cam Newton drops some truth about Seahawks' Legion of Boom
By Lee Vowell
During his best seasons with the Carolina Panthers, Cam Newton was good enough to beat most teams when many times the Panthers' offense was only Newton. He was a big and athletic quarterback with a strong arm and was faster than most defensive players. In many seasons when the Seattle Seahawks were among the best teams in the NFL, they had to find a way to beat Newton and the Panthers to get where they wanted.
Thankfully, Seattle got the better of the Panthers in most of those games going 5-2 against Carolina from 2012 through 2016. Often, however, the games felt so tight that a player or two could have changed the outcome. For the most part, Seattle was able to limit Newton or the Panthers' offense overall was so limited that the Seahawks could win low-scoring battles.
Newton, for all of his flare and showmanship on the field, is able to understand now what he was facing from the Seahawks then. On a recent episode of Club Shay Shay with Shannon Sharpe, Newton was asked about Russell Wilson's issues with the Denver Broncos. Newton compared Denver Russ to Seattle Russ and how the quarterback was helped by the Legion of Boom.
Cam Newton speaks with respect about the Seattle Seahawks' Legion of Boom
Newton named a bunch of greater players from those 2010s defenses, including Bruce Irvin along with Bobby Wagner and others. To Newton, looking across the offensive line at the design of the Seattle defense and the players involved, he found the situation "intimidating." Newton also implied that Seattle came across naturally this way as well instead of simply trying to act tough.
Newton also talked about how the Seahawks never seemed to be out of a game, pointing out the time Carolina led Seattle in the divisional round of the 2015 playoffs 31-0 at halftime. The Panthers did not score after halftime and Seattle only lost 31-24 but part of that was due to a recovered onside kick late in the game. Newton even remembered the NFC Championship game for the 2014 season when Seattle came back in the second half to defeat the Green Bay Packers in overtime after being down 16-0.
Newton might not always have been the most-liked player during his time in the league. He was too flamboyant for some. But there is little doubt he was secretly respectful of the great defenses, especially the one that belonged to the Seahawks, he faced.