Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton lit up social media on Tuesday, getting an early jump on Thanksgiving by giving thanks for the “second chance” he got after being arrested in 2008 for stealing a laptop.
Newton, who was skewered in October for taking a sexist dig at a reporter, marked the nine-year anniversary of his arrest while a backup quarterback at the University of Florida with Tuesday’s Instagram post, saying he wants to be an “open book” in learning from the mistake he made Nov. 21, 2008.
“On this date I thought my life and my career was over and the fact that I had shamed my family with the media coverage surrounding this situation I vowed to myself on this day (9 yrs ago) that ‘I will be better from this situation,’” Newton wrote.
The 2015 MVP continued: “What you must learn from this story is this; if you live your life listening to what other people are saying you should do and not your own, shame on you!”
The post, which garnered more than 200,000 likes in less than 24 hours, also contained a subsequent “side note” from Newton, saying he’s “not going to have any regrets with the second chance” he got from God.
“And people wonder why I play the game the way I do, act the way I act, dress the way I dress, and even live the way I live because in some people’s eyes ‘I’m not supposed to be here’ but in my eyes I’m not going to have any regrets with the second chance God has given me,” Newton wrote.
Newton then referenced lyrics of a Jay-Z and Kanye West song, “N—as in Paris,” saying, “if you escaped what I’ve escaped, you’d be in Paris getting messed up too.”
The post — in which Newton said he was “extremely thankful for God’s mercy, grace and favor” — was praised as a powerful inspirational message by some users, including one who said it brought tears to her eyes and another who said Newton was a “completely classy stud.”
“Now I like you even more as a person and a football player,” one user replied. “Thanks for the honesty. God bless you.”
Others, meanwhile, weren’t thrilled about Newton’s use of an unorthodox font for the post — which is his standard — and at least one person accused Newton of being cocky and arrogant.
“Every time he gets caught or something happens to him from saying or doing dumb s–t he wants to try to spin it into thanking God or whatever,” the post read. “He needs to grow up.”
Newton’s post came one day after his foundation reportedly fed an early Thanksgiving meal to more than 850 kids in the Charlotte area.
“That’s what you have a foundation for,” Newton told ESPN. “It’s to make an impact. I play football on Sundays, but so much of me is bigger than football and more to it than just running touchdowns and throwing touchdowns.”