‘Super Men’ film Q&A: Luke Kuechly on whether Cam Newton, Panthers will reunite
Legendary Carolina linebacker Luke Kuechly believes that his old star teammate Cam Newton will eventually become more involved with the Panthers again, recementing a bond forged when Newton was the Panthers’ charismatic quarterback during most of the 2010s.
“He’ll be back,” Kuechly said following the premiere of The Charlotte Observer documentary “Super Men,” which is an inside look at the 2015 Panthers team that Kuechly and Newton helped lead to a Super Bowl. “I think it’s just one of those things that’s gotta work out timing-wise, to get everybody on the same page.”
Standouts from the 2015 team — including Kuechly, tight end Greg Olsen, linebacker Thomas Davis, running back Jonathan Stewart, center Ryan Kalil, safety Kurt Coleman, cornerback Josh Norman, head coach Ron Rivera and many others — were extensively interviewed for the 63-minute Observer documentary and online series, which celebrates the 10-year anniversary of that remarkable season.
Newton, however, never responded to The Observer’s repeated requests for an interview.
In a Q&A panel with the audience following a sold-out premiere of the documentary on July 24 at Charlotte’s Independent Picture House, Kuechly staunchly defended Newton as a teammate. The linebacker added that he wished Newton would return to Bank of America Stadium and Charlotte for some more public appearances.
Since Newton’s eight-game comeback with Carolina in the 2021 season — he went 0-5 as a starter that year and never played in another NFL game — he has rarely been seen by Panthers fans in Charlotte.
Rumors of a rift with the team have abounded. They have been fueled in part by Newton’s comments in November on his “4th and 1” podcast. He said then he had recently been in the Panthers’ stadium and didn’t see any photos of himself in the high-traffic ground-floor areas; this was pointed out to him by one of his children.
Newton added on his podcast that he was hurt that team officials didn’t include him on the team’s trip to Germany along with other Carolina legends.
“Did it hurt my feelings?” Newton said. “Yeah, it did. Like: ‘Damn, bro. I gave this city everything.’”
The Panthers have yet to announce plans for their own celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the 2015 team, which won both the NFC Championship and a franchise-record 17 games. Whether Newton participates will be closely watched. The Panthers will undoubtedly invite him and urge him to come.
Kuechly hopes that his former teammate will attend.
“I think Cam means a lot to this organization, this city, certainly this team, and obviously the main character on this film here was Cam,” said Kuechly, who now works on the Panthers’ radio broadcast team and has remained close with Newton. “So, I think we’d all love for Cam to be around more.
“But everybody understands: You get done playing with football, there’s a lot going on. Cam has kids. Cam lives in Atlanta. Cam does a lot with (his) podcast. Cam runs a highly successful 7-on-7 (high school football) tournament. ... We certainly all have a very unique relationship with Cam. He’s a special guy. He was a special teammate. ... No one worked harder than Cam. And I never saw Cam, ever, in the whole time I played with him, throw a guy under the bus or yell at somebody on the team.”
“I know the organization and the Teppers (Panthers owner David Tepper and his wife Nicole) certainly still have a special place in their heart for him,” Kuechly continued. “And I think a lot of it really, just honestly, comes down to: People get busy doing things. ...
“And I think that, at the end of the day, is really what it comes down to.”
Here are a half-dozen more things fans learned from the Q&A post-documentary panel, which also featured Norman, long snapper J.J. Jansen (the only player from the 2015 team still playing for the Panthers in 2025) and both Rivera and his daughter Courtney, who was the Panthers’ social media coordinator in 2015.
Former wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery, former team president Danny Morrison and former N.C. governor Pat McCrory were also among the 250 people in a crowd that filled two sold-out theaters.
Ticket proceeds from the event benefited Veterans Bridge Home, a charity chosen and supported by Ron Rivera.
Mike Tolbert, hype man
Pro Bowl fullback Mike Tolbert also attended the screening, and Kuechly and Jansen went out of their way to praise Tolbert for serving as the team’s unofficial DJ throughout the 2015 season.
“Tolb,” said Jansen, “you are the best locker-room DJ there’s ever been.”
Kuechly agreed: “The thing that gets contentious in a locker room is the music. ... Tolb would always have the same three or four songs before we’d go out on the field, before the game started. ... Everybody kind of was able to be like, ‘Man, we gotta go play football now!’”
Tolbert also would entertain the team by dressing up as then-Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman at many Saturday walk-through practices, Kuechly said, describing the imitation as “hilarious.” Jansen also noted that Tolbert liked to play the Al Pacino speech from the movie “Any Given Sunday” to hype up his teammates.
Will Kuechly become a defensive coordinator?
A fan asked if Kuechly, known for his beautiful mind for football, would become a defensive coordinator at the college or NFL level.
Kuechly responded quickly: “Actually, I’m a current defensive coordinator at Charlotte Christian (middle school, where former teammate Olsen serves as its head coach). August 27th, we have our first game of the year. So if you’d like to come to that, you can.”
The 2 loudest moments at B of A
A discussion about Kuechly’s pick-six interception in the NFC Championship game vs. Arizona included his thoughts about a fan who fell over the railing and directly in front of him during the celebration in the end zone.
“And that’s a pretty good drop,” Kuechly said, laughing, “probably 8-9 feet. ... The guy landed directly on his back, and he was right underneath me, and the look on his face was something that you couldn’t ever describe. It was excitement. It was ‘How did I get here?’ It was a little bit of pain. ... He was probably as surprised as I was that there was a random person that just fell out of the stands and on the ground.”
Jansen, who has played in more Panthers games than anyone in team history, said Kuechly’s interception was one of the two times he had felt Bank of America Stadium shake. The other? Domenik Hixon’s 2013 game-winning touchdown catch from Newton to beat New Orleans in the final seconds.
Where was Josh Norman’s help?
Norman pointed out during the Q&A that, in his famous training-camp fight against Newton in August 2015, while the quarterback had a number of offensive players immediately rush over to help him and/or pull players apart, few defensive players came to Norman’s aid.
“The offensive guys were there, but none of my guys were there to support me,” Norman said, with good humor.
Kuechly, meanwhile, teased Norman: “Cam whooped your butt, I’m not gonna lie.”
“Why didn’t you come help?” Norman countered.
“I was talking to Greg,” Kuechly hot back at Norman, as both men laughed. “We were drinking water.”
The Indianapolis game
While not covered in the documentary, the Panthers’ overtime win against Indianapolis in 2015 was discussed for several minutes in the Q&A — with most of the focus on the protesters who sneaked climbing equipment through the security gates at the stadium and then dangled in the air near the press box, unfurling signs that urged Bank of America to do ... something.
“I suddenly realized, you know, there’s people hanging from the rafters,” Jansen said. “.... They’re literally hanging off the side of the stadium. ... I wasn’t even really sure what they were protesting. Like, you had to read reports for a couple of days to figure it out.”
Kuechly cracked: “Your game experience is so much different than the rest of us. Josh is trying to cover T.Y. Hilton. ... J.J. is looking at protesters.”
Ron Rivera draws standing ovation
At the close of the 45-minute Q&A panel, Rivera spoke about the ring he had Jostens specifically design for him following the 2015 season.
While all the other team members’ rings were emblazoned with the numbers “17-2,” signifying what remains the best Panthers record in history, Rivera asked for (and received) a ring that read “17-1”; that was the record the Panthers sported after they won the NFC title, but before they played the Super Bowl.
“This is the NFC Championship ring,” Rivera said he told the ring company. “It’s not the Super-Bowl-loser ring.”
As for The Observer’s documentary, Rivera pronounced it “great.” He also, however, had a suggested edit. “I would cut out the very end,” Rivera said, referring to the film’s final chapter, when the Super Bowl loss is discussed in depth.
“Because the truth of the matter is,” Rivera said while gesturing toward his former players, “(fans should) celebrate the 17-1. Celebrate what they did, winning the NFC Championship for this city. Take pride in that. ... Be proud of that for them, for these guys, as well. It was my pleasure to serve as their head coach. It was my pleasure to serve as your team’s head coach — to do that for you.
“So thank you all very much for being here. I really do appreciate each and every one of you.”
With that, the crowd gave Rivera a standing ovation, and the evening was over.
This story was originally published July 30, 2025 at 2:30 PM.
