Cam Newton blasts Giants rookie for not recognizing NFL legend Calvin Johnson

In some cases, the kids are definitely not alright. Athletes from the newest generation of stars seem to have some strange notions about what came before them. Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro says he doesn't believe in any history that happened before 1950, none of this year's NFL rookies know about the existence of the greatest football movie of all time - Jerry Maguire - and some of them can't even recognize Hall of Famers who didn't play all that long ago.

The most recent bizarre example of players not knowing some of the game's all-time greats is New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo, who apparently could not identify former Detroit Lions wide reciever Calvin Johnson - who was so good he earned a supervillain nickname.

Nevertheless, Skattebo didn't know who he was - a fact that did not sit well with former Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. Here's what he said about it in a recent segement on his 4th & 1 podcast - H/T Sportskeeda.

"They not fans of the game,... These kids— they playing video games all day. Have you ever heard of Chad Ochocinco? Have you heard of Terrell Owens? Have you heard of Steve Smith? Have you heard of Prime Time? ... They’re looking at everything on YouTube. And granted, to Cam Skattebo’s defense, a lot of what he sees has been on probably YouTube..."

Newton is probably right that Youtube is the culprit - or more generally this generation having grown up with internet access - and the multi-verses of distractions that come with it. Cam says young athletes should spend at least half an hour to an hour a day studying the greats of their sports.

It certainly wouldn't hurt, but you don't need to know NFL trivia to play the game at a high level. As long as Skattebo locks in and trains as hard or harder than his competition he's giong to be alright.

Then again, the most-legendary competitors always tend to be students of history - and can draw from the experience of having studied the greats that came before them.