Cam Newton Quit Baseball At 14 Because He Was Afraid Of The Ball
(CBS) To play quarterback in the NFL, you must be as close to fearless as possible.
Few other activities leave you starring down the face mask of a 300-pound athlete who wants to do nothing more than destroy you.
But for Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, the challenge of playing baseball was much, much scarier than playing football.
In fact, Newton quit baseball at a young age because he was afraid of the ball.
"I quit baseball at 14 because I was afraid of the pitches," Newton told ESPN the Magazine. "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."
