Cam Newton was asked by Stephen A. Smith on First Take Thursday morning if he'd give back the 2015 NFL MVP award he won as a Carolina Panther for a Super Bowl championship. Newton surprised everyone by saying that he would not.

Why? Well, Newton went in a lot of different directions so here's his full response:

"You have to ask it through this lens," Newton said. "That was a very journalistic viewpoint, vantage point of response, Stephen A. I'll ask you this question, and you know, just to pose this thought. What's more important: impact or championships? You look at a guy like Allen Iverson, who you stood up on the table and bah bah bah bah. Everyone's not going to be Michael Jordan. Everybody's not going to be Patrick Mahomes. Everyone's not going to be these individuals who have the luxury of saying 'hey, I not only dominated this sport but I also have championships to back it."

"Let me remind you," he continued. "Brad Johnson won a Super Bowl. Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl. Respectfully, Nick Foles won a Super Bowl. So, yes, when you look at those guys and you say 'okay, what's more important, would you have preferred to win a Super Bowl?' I think that that's the humble approach, but if we're being honest, the impact of you holding yourself accountable to say everybody has a responsibility to do. And you can say as an MVP award-winner or an All-American you've held yourself or you've held your end of the bargain down. And that's what it really comes down to for me. I know that's not the popular pick—I'm not trying to be popularized. My take is: I'm taking individual success because I did my job. Football is not about one guy trying to do 11 jobs, it's 11 guys doing one job and if everybody does their job best—famous words of our coach Belichick—just do your job."

Kudos to Newton for being honest here in a place others would try to answer politically. A counterpoint, among many, would be asking what the one job the 11 guys are trying to do, but let's not get bogged down in details.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Cam Newton Surprisingly Says He Wouldn't Trade His MVP for a Super Bowl Ring.