Cam Newton drips with fashion sauce in 2017

Do we expect Cam Newton to show some characteristic fashion flair as the Panthers head to the playoffs?

Come on: Do people slip on a floor covered with sauce?

(We’ll forgive you if you’re confused now, and we’ll help you catch up: “Dripping sauce” means you have amazing style. A reporter asked him this, this week: “You’re always dripping sauce at the post-game... Playoffs coming up, bigger stage: You have something in mind?” Newton tried to beg off with a “nothing that you probably ain’t already seen” but then fessed up at the end about his real intention, as he walked away from the mic: “Wet floor signs.”)

We’d expect nothing less.

And it will come after a remarkable year, style-wise, even for Newton.

In spring, he broke the internet with a “romper” that wasn’t. (No worries if you misread the look; so did model Brooklyn Decker.)

In summer, he made Sports Illustrated’s “Fashionable 50,” though we continue to be aghast at the notion of him not making the top 10.

In October, he got his style put into an art museum: Well, one outfit at any rate, going on a made-to-order mannequin in the Mint Museum’s “Charlotte Collects: Contemporary Couture and Fabulous Fashion.” (Don’t worry: You can still see it, through Feb. 4 at the Randolph Road location.)

And remarkably, Newton has managed to keep pace with his own style-mavenness throughout the actual 2017 NFL season.

As playoffs begin, our fans’ fancy may turn to those Versace pants (Barocco Accent Print in Yellow Zebra, ICYMI) he broke out for his last Super Bowl.

But for now, let’s focus on what he wore in the regular season.

Key to his fashion-forward followthrough? A hat tip must go to ... the hats. Fez (OK, OK: “brimless hat”) to feathered fedoras to the fillip of a fishing lure, he brought the flash.

Enjoy the above look at post-game outfits and on-the-field pregame shoe choices, complete with zoom-ins on the most luscious details.

Have predictions about his playoff sartorial selections? Share in the comments...

This story was originally published January 5, 2018 at 2:27 PM with the headline "Cam Newton drips with fashion sauce in 2017."