'They Run From the Pencil Sharpener': Cam Newton Agrees With Deion Sanders on Transfer Portal Issue

More than 4,500 Division 1 players have entered the transfer portal this offseason, signifying the ever-growing need for both competition and compensation in the world of college athletics. However, if you were to ask some of their now former head coaches, it is lack of adversity, rather than opportunity, that is to blame for this mass exodus.

Criticism is an inherent part of life, of learning, growing, and developing. It’s even more important when it comes to player development, but according to figures like Deion Sanders, all it takes is one overly critical film session to send your four and even five-star talent sprinting towards the transfer portal.

“You want to go chase a bag instead of chase the game,” Sanders recently noted while speaking with Barstool Sports. “Chase the game. The game got the bag. Don’t chase the bag, the bag ain’t got the game. Chase the game, because that’s going to sustain you for a moment. This right here is going to maintain you forever.”

The idea of the youth becoming too sensitive to criticism isn’t novel by any means, but now that other NFL legends, such as Cam Newton, are starting to reiterate what Sanders is claiming, perhaps there’s more truth to be found here. During the latest episode of his 4th & 1 podcast, the former face of the Carolina Panthers likened the latest generation’s mindset to that of a new pencil.

“That pencil thinks it’s the best pencil in the pack… That pencil becomes the best pencil in the pack by what it’s able to go through in the pencil sharpener. If a pencil could actually talk… Do you think that it would be comfortable… when it’s going through a sharpener? …No it would not… A lot of times, these kids, when they’re going through these transfer portals, they run from the pencil sharpener.”

In the eyes of Newton, as well as his fellow ‘old heads,’ the introduction of NIL and the transfer portal, while at times beneficial, has ultimately resulted in there being an ever-increasing lack of accountability in organized sports. Remember, the majority of these players will never see the professional level, and even fewer will have an opportunity to play elsewhere once their college career comes to an end.

Even if they were somehow able to make it to the National Football League, there would still be no guarantee of success, as the average length of an NFL career is a little more than three years. Simply put, you’re supposed to be a student first and an athlete second, and if someone doesn’t convey that message to the youth in a timely manner, then we may just end up with a generation of lost athletes on our hands.