“He Wasn’t Drafted”: Cam Newton Gives Maxx Crosby a Reality Check Using C.J. Newton Example

The 2026 regular season is a little more than 170 days away, but there is no shortage of drama in Baltimore. The Ravens have managed to create one of the most confusing football narratives of the entire year with their last-second withdrawal from a trade with the Las Vegas Raiders for Maxx Crosby. The issues stemming from it have yet to be resolved.

According to Crosby, neither he nor the fans may ever truly know what happened that day. “No one will really ever admit, on either side, what the real truth is,” he said during one of his most recent podcasts.

Given the quickness with which the Ravens signed Trey Hendrickson after their announcement about Crosby, many have been skeptical of the franchise’s claims that Crosby simply failed his physical. But not Cam Newton, who argued that Crosby’s trip to Baltimore was how things normally work in the NFL.

“Every single trade still depends on passing a physical, right?… That team wasn’t obligated to show you to meet the owner, to meet the GM, or to even meet the head coach. What you got was a harsh reality of… This happens. Your experience, that you went through… It happens more than not,” said Newton, who then mentioned the journey of his elder brother, C.J. Newton, in the NFL.

“I will tell you a story… My eldest brother, C.J.Newton, short for Cecil Jr… He wasn’t drafted out of Tennessee State University. And this is what the point that I want to get uh across, Max,” said the former Carolina Panther, who then added that he had to have a “heart-to-heart” conversation with him during a tryout period for the NFC South franchise.

The topic? The realistically impossible odds of becoming a member of an official NFL roster.

“There are unrestricted free agents, or undrafted free agents. There [are] free agents. There [are] people that’s trying out for a team that has an unbelievable journey to try to make the team,” Newton added.

Believing that there is an “80% chance” that any given player could be passed over for someone else, the former regular-season MVP winner exclaimed that “What you just went through, Maxx Crosby, is what the average NFL player goes through, unfortunately.”

Newton likened Crosby’s situation to that of Aaron Rodgers‘ in 2025. The New York Jets had asked the quarterback to travel across the country for an in-person meeting, just for it to conclude with his dismissal in a matter of minutes. Newton was suggesting that upper-echelon players have simply gotten too used to “receiving presidential treatment.”

Even though it may not be very comforting, Newton’s take is an honest one, and likely an important one for current players as well. For better or worse, it’s a reminder that, at the end of the day, the NFL is a business first and foremost, and that the gridiron has never once, nor will it ever, owe you anything.