NFL quarterbacks are some of the most fearless people you’ll ever meet, so it’s rare that you’ll find them admitting to being scared of anything.
Panthers quarterback Cam Newton recently admitted that he’s not scared of anything involving football, but did admit that he and baseball did not agree with each other.
During a recent feature for ESPN the Magazine, Newton talked about how he played baseball as a kid and was pretty good at it.
Newton talked about playing a number of different positions and looking up to the likes of Ken Griffey Jr.
He started playing football at age 7, and moved away from baseball, because he was scared of the ball.
I quit baseball at 14 because I was afraid of the pitches. The kids started getting better and throwing faster, and it would’ve hurt getting hit by that ball, so I stopped playing. That left a void, so I started playing basketball in the eighth grade. It was just something to do then, and in my first high school game, I fouled out. I was big and strong, and every time I tried to steal the ball on defense, I’d knock the kid down. I had to understand the difference between basketball and football, but it was challenging being so big. My first position in football was linebacker, actually, which helped me more than anything. It gave me the mechanism to want to hit rather than to cringe at the thought of being hit. So when I got the opportunity to play offense, it was nothing. I wasn’t shying away from contact. If anything, I was initiating it. I think that’s what kind of made me stand out at an early age. My mom always wondered how I could be afraid of a little baseball when I always had these huge guys chasing me. It’s a good question.