Shannon Sharpe certainly separated himself when offering his opinion on why Cam Newton is no longer with the Patriots.
One of the things said by the former tight end on FS1's "Undisputed," was, "Cam is an outsider, and they look down on outsiders.”
Interesting.
So, what did Christian Fauria, co-host of the MFers with Lou Merloni, think of Sharpe's analysis?
"You will never hear a dumber take, and that’s coming from me," Fauria said during Thursday afternoon's show.
He continued, pretending to get in the mind of Sharpe, "Basically, the Patriots cut Cam Newton for no other reason than because of his personality. They didn’t like his personality. They don’t like outsiders. Isn’t every free agent technically an outsider. Isn’t every guy who is on another team that has no idea what goes on with this Patriots team basically an outsider. Maybe like for the first week until he gets to know everybody’s name. He gets to know where the bathrooms are. The weight rooms are. Where to get something to eat around time. But Shannon Sharpe actually is blaming Cam Newton being cut because the Patriots couldn’t handle his big, giant personality. The way he dressed. The way he carried himself. The dancing. It wasn’t his fault that he wasn’t any good or that he got old or that he has lost a step or that the Patriots were really trying to make a change so much that they drafted a quarterback with the 15th pick in the Draft, and he outplayed you.
"Personalities … This team has been filled with personalities over the years. He throws out Gronk like, OK, that’s your average, typical … Let me use Gronk as the example. Everyone uses Gronk because he’s the most successful and he’s the most accomplished. … Use Randy Moss. How about Aqib Talib? How about Ty Law? How about Tedy Bruschi? How about Martellus Bennett? What are you talking about? So when I hear how stupid of a comment that is, the only reason he would say something like that is just because he wants to make an excuse for Cam. That’s it. It can’t because he’s good. Any other organization, they would have given him the benefit of the doubt. They would have given him another year. But the Patriots, they hate outsiders and personalities. Don’t come in the Patriots’ locker room with any sort of personality. It’s so stupid."
Merloni agreed with his co-host, adding, "People are searching because they are all in on the Cam bus because they thought this was going to be the year where Cam is the MVP and Cam is this and Cam is that. And Bill Belichick watched these two guys play. He said one guy is better than the other. And he cut Cam Newton. And they are coming up with excuses. It’s almost why Malcolm Butler didn’t play in the Super Bowl. You can’t believe it. There’s got to be a reason. It can’t just be he’s not good, because he is good. He’s good, right? (Newton) hasn’t been good in years."
That allowed Fauria to punctuate his rant against Sharpe.
"I saw this and my jaw hit the floor," he said. "Are you bleeping kidding me right now. You’re that lazy and you’re that protective of Cam Newton that you’re willing to throw up the most ridiculous reason that anybody has ever said. The Patriots would never walk away from a guy, a talented player, because of personality. Now a crappy player? They will walk away because they are crappy. Not because of their personality. Not because of the car they drive … It’s ridiculous."