CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Cam Newton took a shot at the state of the Carolina Panthers’ organization before he arrived in 2011, and now some of his former Panthers teammates are shooting back.

Former NFL star Cam Newton loves his role as a father. “Fatherhood has been great. … I’m not as bad as I thought I was!” Newton joked in a 2017 interview with Yahoo! Entertainment.

Steve Smith Sr., a former teammate of Newton's, took exception to the comments played in the soundbites. The whole context showed that Newton specifically spoke about the pressures and reality of ...