Newton blamed for 7-on-7 tournament brawl
Cam Newton was caught up in the tussle between several men at a 7-on-7 football tournament where he was coaching on the weekend — and now the coaches on the other side say that the former NFL MVP is to blame, calling it “typical Cam Newton behaviour.”
Video emerged on Sunday of Newton, a former first-overall pick and the 2015 NFL MVP, taking on a group of men at the “We Ball Sports” 7-on-7 football tournament in Atlanta before being separated by security.
Two men involved in the brawl, TJ and Steph Brown, say that it was Newton who sparked the incident and that tensions had been brewing not just over the weekend, but for quite some time.
In the video, Newton can be seen grabbing and pushing Steph before TJ comes in and throws a punch from behind. From there, the scuffle moves towards a nearby fence as other men enter the fracas and more punches are thrown.
Security then steps in to keep the sides apart.
“It just should never have gotten to that,” TJ told Fox News Digital, also placing some blame on tournament organizers.
“First off, on the organizer’s part, we weren’t even supposed to be playing Cam. They were on the whole other side of the bracket,” he added.
The Browns, who run Topshelf Performance’s (TSP) 7-on-7 teams, had a relationship with Newton dating to 2020, when the NFLER appointed TJ as head coach of one of his ‘C1N’ teams, while Steph later joined as an assistant.
The Browns left to create their own team in 2022 after tensions rose within the organization, sparked by TJ’S team beating Newton’s squad.
TJ and Steph said that taunting from Newton’s side — which began prior to the game even starting — was more personal than the usual trash talk.
“As we’re warming up, you see in most of the videos, Cam has this chant where he’s like, ‘Ayo!’ So he yells it over on his sideline, then he tells them, ‘Man, y’all go over there and do it to them too,'” TJ said.
“So all the players run up on us, and they’re like, ‘Ayo!’ Mind you, he knows a lot of our players don’t mess with his players and some of them are cool.
“Obviously, as they’re running up on our players, the We Ball folks, they’re recording it. All I said to the camera was, ‘Don’t delete the film when I beat him this time,’ because the last time I beat him — the last three times I beat them — all of a sudden there’s no film. ‘Oh, we didn’t record anything. We took pictures.”
After TSP beat C1N in their game on Saturday, TJ said that Newton was confrontational in the parking lot on Sunday when the two arrived for the day’s slate of games.
He also said that Newton was later taunting TSP during their game despite facing a different team.
When TSP hit the field for their game, Newton reportedly was at the top of the steps seen in the video, hurling more verbal barbs at his former associates.
“It’s probably three minutes into the game, he’s sitting up top with all his kids around him under a tent yelling down on us,” TJ said. “‘Hey, I know that play. That’s my stuff. I taught y’all everything y’all know. I’m y’all daddy. I made y’all. I’m the reason for everything y’all got going on.’ He’s just yelling all this stuff.”
One anonymous parent who was present for the altercation confirmed to Fox News Digital that Newton had been taunting those on the field.
After TSP’S game is when things reached a boiling point. Steph went to walk up the stairs to confront Newton about the taunting. That’s when the ex-nfler grabbed Steph and TJ came in swinging.
“If you’re walking up a flight of stairs, and you see a six-foot-six guy grab your little brother trying to throw him down some stairs, you’re going to intervene,” TJ said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, rather it be a punch, rather it be a push, rather it be grabbing him. You’re going to do something. So, at that point, with Cam putting his hands on another grown man, something is going to come behind that.”
Police became involved, but no arrests were made and no charges were pressed, though Steph, TJ and Newton were ordered to leave the grounds.