Cam Newton Says Stephon Gilmore Testing Positive for COVID-19 Was 'My Worst Nightmare'

Cam Newton was hoping for the best-case scenario for his COVID-19 diagnosis. The New England Patriots quarterback was on WEEI's the Greg Hill Show Monday morning and talked about testing positive for the coronavirus earlier this month. He said he had no idea how he contracted the virus and was devastated to learn his teammate Stephon Gilmore tested positive five days later.

"I think the biggest scare here for everybody was just my, I guess, daily routine of how many hours I put in the facility," Newton said as reported by USA Today "And if I contracted it, if anybody would have had a red flag, I think it would have been me. Here's a person who's here as long as he is. Who was he around? Who did he touch? And I was more concerned about it, because I didn't want to put nobody else on the team in jeopardy for this." Newton went on to say that when Gilmore got COVID-19, "it was my worst nightmare being that I would never want to sabotage anything to the slightest degree, because I know what we have the capability of becoming."

Newton missed the Patriots' Week 4 game against the Kansas City Chiefs. The team was on a bye last week, but a few players were placed on the COVID-19/Reserve list. Newton and Gilmore returned to the lineup for Sunday's game against the Denver Broncos. They lost 18-12, but Newton was happy to be back on the field.

"Here I am, I get prepared for something, and then I find out the day before (the Chiefs game) that I'm not going to go," Newton said. "I was thinking as optimistic as could be. I was like, 'Man, it's a false positive.' Then it ended up being true." Newton then said the situation has been "weird" because he couldn't do anything. As for the game, the loss puts the Patriots at 2-3 on the year and two games behind the Buffalo Bills for the AFC East lead.

"My job here moving forward is to find ways to win football games and to put this team in the best situation and it just starts with protecting the football," Newton said to reporters after the game on Sunday. "That's what this game came down to, no matter what the sputtering was on the offensive side the defense gave us opportunities by holding them to field goals and that's what we got to, that's what we can only ask for as an offense we just let this game slip away by the lackluster performance of protecting the football."