Cam Newton has apologized for his part in the viral brawl. On Friday (Mar. 1), Newton released a new episode of his 4th and 1 Podcast to address the fight, take accountability for his actions, and state that he let his fans down. Newton expressed that he shouldn’t have “let my emotions get the best of me” and denounced violence. The one-time MVP also used the moment to speak directly to the next generation of athletes.

“This is what I really want the narrative to be: To every single high school player, to every single person I’ve influenced, to every single athlete, use my situation as a way to understand that, in one moment and one decision, your life can change,” he said. “Just like that. And I let my emotions get the best of me, and it should not have been called for. Simple.”

“There’s no excuse. It’s really not, ’cause it could’ve been a melee, more violence could’ve stemmed from that and it’s just not called for. And on top of that, it’s echoing something that’s been permeating for years — Black people. Why it gotta be at a Black event? You know what I’m saying? And I can easily play the victim and I’m not going to do that.”

As he continued, the ex-Auburn football player expressed his desire to want to inspire the next generation of athletes. “I have to use my power to empower the next generation. That’s all I wanna do. I wanna use what I’ve been through as information to change the narrative because to be honest, these are a lot of children way out of their situation,” he said.

It appears that the apology is the last chapter in this story, as both parties aren’t interested in legal action. According to TMZ, Cam has declined to press charges. TSP dodged the question altogether, the outlet reports. 

“Neither Mr. Newton or any of the other involved persons who remained on scene indicated that they required medical attention or wished to pursue criminal charges,” the Atlanta Police Department’s statement read. “The responding officers completed an information only incident report to document what had occurred. At this time, it is unknown how or why the scuffle occurred.”

Cam Newton’s attackers had previously given their side of what led up to the fight. The Beat ATL interviewed Top Shelf Performance, the men manhandled by the former NFL player. Two of the men, named Steph and TJ Brown, apologized for “portraying” a violent side to them. 

“First and foremost like what I want to do… I want to apologize to everybody that was out there. The parents of not just our team but everybody that was affected by,” TSP expressed. “Like we should have been able to sit down and talk. There’s no reason we should be yelling at each other while a game is going on.”

They then accused Newton of starting the whole thing. The men labeled the mayhem as “typical Cam behavior” and said that his trash talk was uncalled. However, it was later discovered that Steph and TJ Brown were the ones who trash-talked Newton first in their IG Story.

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