Former Carolina Panthers and New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton, who won the MVP award in 2015, published a video to his official YouTube channel in which he stated that he was vaccinated and wishes to continue playing football.
Newton, 32, was surprisingly released by the Patriots just prior to the kickoff of the regular season, and has remained on the free agent market ever since. Newton made headlines during Patriots camp when he missed three practices because of what the Patriots called a COVID-19 protocol “misunderstanding”. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick would later say that Newton’s vaccination status did not factor into the team’s decision to release the quarterback.
“Hell yeah I still want to play football,” Newton said during the video posted on Sunday. “I still get that urge to go out and perform and do something that I’ve been doing since I was 7 years old.”
Newton explained that his initial reluctance to get the vaccine was due to his beliefs that “the side effects weren’t beneficial to me.” He added that he still believes receiving the vaccine is “a personal decision.”
