Former Alabama QB Greg McElroy says Newton ‘quit on his team’

Former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy wears his Crimson Tide badge with pride, so much that he doesn’t hesitate to criticize former rivals, even if it is former Auburn star, Heisman Trophy winner and reigning NFL MVP Cam Newton.

McElroy, who currently hosts his own radio show on Sirus XM and also serves as an analyst for the SEC Network, called out Newton today over how the quarterback “quit on his team” as the Carolina Panthers got manhandled by the Denver Broncos 24-10 in Super Bowl 50 this past Sunday.

Of course, McElroy’s comments were posted to Twitter by SEC Network.

McElroy is referencing a play on which Newton fumbled the ball and basically stood idly by as Denver pounced on it, and Newton admitted that he did not go after the ball out of a desire to avoid injury. However, though McElroy says that this isn’t an Alabama-Auburn thing, that should be taken with a grain of salt.

Keep in mind that this is not the first time that McElroy has had critical words for Manning. Back in 2011, when both were preparing for the NFL Draft and Newton was fresh off of leading Auburn to a national championship, McElroy said that he was better than Newton simply because he had more experience playing in a pro-style offense and could read defenses better.

The rest, as they say, is history. Newton went on to be drafted first overall by Carolina and is enjoying a lucrative NFL career, while McElroy was taken by the New York Jets in the seventh round and appeared in two games in three seasons before retiring in 2014 after spending all of 2013 on the practice squad of the Cincinnati Bengals.

That said, though McElroy’s words may ring partially true, could it be that he’s still feeling some sour grapes over how his career panned out compared to Newton’s?

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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports

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