Does snagging the Most Valuable Player award without a championship ring make you the face of the league? Not according to Cam Newton. On a recent episode of the “4th and 1” podcast, Newton dug into what it really takes to be the poster boy for a sports league like the NFL or NBA, and in his book, no ring means no dice.
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Newton kicked things off by looking back at his own league MVP win in 2015, admitting with honesty that even with that shiny trophy, he wasn’t the league’s main man. It was Tom Brady. In Cam’s playbook, being the face of the league requires three key ingredients: you’ve got to be a winner, have that charismatic element, and have that marketable X-factor.
Newton then took the viewers on a trip down memory lane, comparing scenarios where MVP winners couldn’t quite get that “face of the league” status without championships. For instance, when Allen Iverson was racking up MVP votes, Kobe Bryant was dubbed the face of the NBA. Then LeBron James swooped in, winning a ring with Miami, and well, the rest is history in itself.
Bringing it back to the current NFL landscape, Newton pointed out that, while Lamar Jackson may have two unanimous MVP awards under his belt, Patrick Mahomes and his three Super Bowl rings still dominate the spotlight.
But Newton wasn’t about to leave his fellow MVP winners hanging. He added that when we start talking about the “face of the culture,” that’s where athletes like Lamar Jackson, Allen Iverson, himself, and Karl Malone enter the conversation. These players were MVP material through and through, but they missed out on that championship piece of the puzzle.
Cam Believes Travis Kelce Would Be the Face of the League Ahead of Lamar Jackson
Cam Newton didn’t stop at just discussing MVPs. He dove deeper, suggesting that even with Jackson’s MVP win in the 2023 season and his status as a franchise quarterback, Travis Kelce might just edge him out as the face of the NFL.
“He’s (Travis) won just as many Super Bowls as Patrick Mahomes, obviously they’re teammates,” Newton pointed out. “He’s got the personality, the charisma. He is marketable and you know he’s got that ‘it’ factor on the field too.”
Newton’s reasoning? No other player got more NFL-related buzz last season than Kelce. Sure, his stats might have dipped a bit, breaking his seven-season streak of 1,000+ yard seasons. But it was Kelce’s off-field marketability that helped the league reach great heights and generate immense revenue. Some of the credit, however, goes to global superstar Taylor Swift, with whom Kelce linked up last September.
Looking ahead, Newton reckons this Kelce fever could carry right on into the upcoming season. In his view, Travis has somehow managed to outshine even his superstar quarterback teammate Patrick Mahomes in the personality department lately.
