Panthers quarterback Cam Newton is motivated by just one thing.
A Super Bowl ring, Newton told high school players at a 7-on-7 tournament he hosted, is what drives him, and the only thing he’s seeking in life.
“I’m looking at my life right now and I’m saying, ‘I’m missing one thing: I want a Super Bowl,’” Newton said, via the Charlotte Observer. “Yeah, but it’s really certain things that you have to really fine-tune and say, ‘Am I deserving to be a Super Bowl-winning quarterback? How can I push myself to be a better me?’”
Newton told the young players that when he was their age, he decided success at the highest level was his only option.
“The only way I put myself in this situation to be successful was I didn’t have no plan B,” Newton said. “I told myself, at the end of the day, I’m gonna be a football player and a football player only. And a lot of guys get it misconstrued because you’re setting yourself up for failure; that’s what some people think. But in myself I was thinking, ‘I ain��t got no other alternative. Either I’m gonna dominate this man in front of me or not.’”
Newton has done plenty in football since he told himself he had no plan B: He won a Heisman Trophy and a national championship in college, and he has an MVP award in the NFL. Now he just needs that ring.