{"id":678103,"date":"2026-01-15T02:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T02:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/678103\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T02:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T02:28:16","slug":"panthers-great-cam-newton-opens-up-about-his-emotional-return-to-carolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/678103\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers great Cam Newton opens up about his emotional return to Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated Jan. 14, 2026, 3:34 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

There was only one thing missing from Cam Newton’s return to Charlotte.<\/p>\n

The Carolina Panthers<\/a> legend, on the newest episode<\/a> of his YouTube show 4th & 1 with Cam Newton, reflected on his long-awaited and highly-anticipated trip back to Bank of America Stadium from this past weekend. Newton\u2014for the first time since 2021\u2014appeared on the field in front of the Panthers faithful, and served<\/a> as the “Keep Pounding” drummer for the team’s wild-card round matchup against the Los Angeles Rams<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Newton’s homecoming was just about perfect and extremely fitting\u2014as he was the last quarterback, prior to the 2025 campaign, to lead the organization to the playoffs. But, as he notes, there was something that could’ve made Saturday even better . . . a win.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite their valiant effort, the Panthers fell short\u2014in a heartbreaking 34-31 loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Carolina took everyone’s Super Bowl favorite to the brink, as they captured a four-point edge with just 2:39 left when quarterback Bryce Young found wideout Jalen Coker for a majestic 7-yard score. MVP frontrunner Matthew Stafford, however, guided the Rams to a game-winning touchdown drive to halt what would have been a monumental upset.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, memories were made and wounds were healed. While the Panthers might not have gotten the victory, they still came out with an emotional night that’ll be forever etched into their history.<\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0@ThePanthersWire<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter\/X for more Panthers content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated Jan. 14, 2026, 3:34 p.m. ET There was only one thing missing from Cam Newton’s return to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[95878,235,260,2567,7,8161,6,236,97114,97115,95882,96165,98825,96059,98826,97061,95924,95927,95888,95895,95899,95906,95883,95894,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-678103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-carolina","10":"tag-carolina-panthers","11":"tag-carolinapanthers","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nc","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-panthers","16":"tag-sstssportsnflpanthers","17":"tag-sstsnpanthers","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagbryce-young","20":"tag-tagcam-newton","21":"tag-tagcarolina-panthers","22":"tag-tagcharlotte","23":"tag-tagjalen-coker","24":"tag-taglos-angeles-rams","25":"tag-tagmatthew-stafford","26":"tag-tagnfl","27":"tag-tagnfl-hub","28":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","29":"tag-tagoverall-positive","30":"tag-tagsports-news","31":"tag-tagtwitter","32":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115896759400512841","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}