Belichick turns ‘Cheating A Lot’ into ‘Camelot’

If you’re a Miami Dolphins fan, you’re confident of just one thing:

Few inside the NFL expect Cam Newton to be Cam Newton again.

Not Carolina, which cut him loose. Not Indianapolis, which signed old man Philip Rivers. Not Tampa Bay, which signed an older Tom Brady, the Los Angeles Chargers or any other team that could have upgraded at quarterback for a dice-rolling year.

But Newton signed with the New England Patriots on Sunday night, and that’s why you’re afraid. You’ve seen Bill Belichick make chicken salad for years. This was Belichick at his finest, too. He didn’t just sign Newton off the scrap heap, for better or worse, but certainly for cheap.

He also timed the signing so an idle sports world wouldn’t focus on his Patriots being penalized a second time for videotaping another team’s signals.

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Just like that, Spygate II became Camapalooza.

Cheating a lot became Camelot.

This is a marriage of desperate parties. Newton needed a home that would let him compete for a starting job. The Patriots, with the uncertain Jarrett Stidham as the apparent starter, needed some more competition at quarterback to move past the lingering ghost of Tom Brady.

Newton moves the conversation from Brady in some form. Belichick played this smartly, as usual. He waited. And waited. And here we are, late June, when there’s no market for Newton, and the Patriots land him for the right price.

If Newton doesn’t work out, it costs New England $1 million. If he does work out, if he’s healthy, if he’s not done at 31, if he is near his 2015 form as the league’s Most Valuable Player, the incentive-filled deal pays him $7.5 million and they get a force to be AFC East champs once again and contend for another title.

Here’s what an NFL executive asked me: If Newton was considered healthy, if teams thought he could play like his former self, don’t you think Carolina would have kept him? Or some team would have signed him by now?