NEWS » offseason after Notre Dame lost its final two game

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton doesnt know why ratings have been down in the NFL this season, but he knows what hed like to see more of: players having fun and celebrating.The reigning NFL MVP says the league has to understand that allowing players to express themselves is good for the game.I really cant talk on their ratings, Newton said Tuesday as he prepared for a Thursday night game against the Saints. But in some?way, shape, form or fashion, we are entertainers. Our influence ranks second-to-none at this time of the year.Few, if any, in the league expressed himself more last season than Newton, whose Dab after touchdown runs spread throughout the country. Newton brought back the Atlanta-based dance in the second quarter of Sundays loss to Kansas City after proclaiming it retired following the 2015 season.Hes not sure whether hell continue to dab the rest of the season.But Newton would like the league to allow more celebrating.Youre asking a person who celebrates, he said with a smile.Newton grew up in Atlanta watching cornerback Deion Prime Time Sanders, known for high-stepping and showboating after big plays.Newton watched the Monday night game between the New York Giants and Cincinnati Bengals just to see what wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. would do after a touchdown.Beckham did his version of Michael Jacksons Thriller. Newton began softly singing the lyrics to the song as he described it.Football is hard, man, Newton said. I cant stress it enough. The way my body feels right now is not going to be the same way it feels come Thursday. Now Im sore, but still knowing that Thursday I gotta give everything.And if scoring a touchdown, getting a sack, getting a win ... let alone all of that bottled up and staying here until 10 at night and here at 6 in the morning, all of that energy that you put, spending time away from your family, all of that bottled up and being able to do exactly what you planned and foresaw yourself doing, you are owed something.Newton, whose foundation sponsors a 7-on-7 football tournament, says he sees his influence and the influence of other NFL players throughout the year talking to kids.So when you come out in blue cleats or white cleats, gold cleats, whatever cleats ... When you come out and do a certain dance, people are watching, Newton said. And when you nuke that, I wouldnt say the ratings may get affected. I dont know what you can determine to that.[But] Im an advocate of youth football, and every time I look on social media or wherever, and I see kids from where I grew up in Atlanta wearing your cleats to doing the whatever, its just mind-boggling. And you have to understand your worth to giving back to your community, as well as the league has to understand its entertaining for people to see that.Newton recalled how he was influenced by the University of Miami football team as a kid in terms of wanting to wear a bandanna as he wears now.I wasnt from Miami, but they didnt know how important they were for my overall growth for the love of football, Newton said. I am pretty sure there are people that I dont know that I wish I could talk to.Its just football brings a lot of people together. I saw one commercial the NFL put together where it says football is family -- and it really is. 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The No. 1-ranked Nadal tweaked his back warming up for the Australian Open final, which he lost almost four weeks ago in a major upset against Stanislas Wawrinka. His first stop after the layoff is the clay in Rio as he tests the back and tries to stay healthy for the French Open in three months. Fans inside Notre Dame Stadium who were calling for defensive coordinator Brian VanGorders job on Saturday got their wish one day later, as Fighting Irish coach Brian Kelly fired the beleaguered defensive coordinator Sunday and promoted defensive analyst Greg Hudson to the post.Saying that Hudson and every other staff member was on a public interview for the rest of the season, Kelly has turned to a fresh set of eyes in hopes of fixing a defense that has allowed 149 points through a 1-3 start, the most points the program has ever given up in its first four games.What I was looking for in this particular instance -- each situation you evaluate it at face value -- and what I was looking for, I thought Greg was the perfect fit to bring that energy level up to where I want to see it, Kelly said during a conference call, shortly after the school announced the change. Guys play hard, but we lack some of the energy and enthusiasm and the fun, quite frankly, that you need to have when youre playing on defense.Notre Dame is 1-5 in its last six games dating back to last season, with its only win coming in Week 2 over Nevada. The Irish have allowed 206 points in those five losses.Notre Dame currently ranks 103rd nationally in total defense, 101st in scoring defense, 104th in yards per play, 96th in rushing defense and 87th in passing defense.Hudson had joined the Irish defensive staff in June and has coordinator experience at Purdue, East Carolina and Minnesota, in addition to serving as assistant head coach and linebackers coach at Florida State.Obviously, this is a difficult day for our coaching staff, but Im excited and honored about the opportunity that Coach Kelly has afforded me, Hudson said in a release earlier Sunday. Weve got to improve on defense, without a doubt, and Im confident that we will. We have great student-athletes and a tremendous defensive coaching staff. I cant wait to get started with our group.Kelly had staunchly defended VanGorder at every turn this season, even saying after Saturdays 38-35 loss to Duke that all 22 starting players jobs were up for grabs but that he was pleased with the coaching staff. He explained the change in public stance Sunday by saying that news conferences are not the appropriate time or place to evaluate his staff, an evaluation that he said took place Saturday night after the loss.Thats not the approppriate time to get into talking about your coaches and where do you feel they fit on that continuum of how well theyre doing, Kelly said.dddddddddddd. Im going to defend them in those public settings. As I got a chance to further evaluate our football team and our current situation I felt that it was in our best interest to make the move that I did.Kelly reiterated Sunday that the defensive vision and personnel will likely be tweaked in the coming weeks.You know, Ill spend a lot more time with the defense obviously, he said. But you know, terminology will stay effectively the same. Were not going to go and pull the rug underneath the kids at this point in the season.But youll see some certain tweaks that I feel like are necessary and some things that I know that as a group, that we will collectively come to an agreement in our best interests.He added that his role will be more as a supervisor to help the transition following?VanGorders dismissal.Kelly said he did not consider a staff change in the offseason after Notre Dame lost its final two games in which it surrendered a combined 82 points, but he said he did evaluate everything internally following this seasons 50-47 double-overtime loss at Texas in the opener.Tax records released to ESPN.com this past spring showed that VanGorder had been among the schools highest-paid employees in 2014, making $1,106,156 in his first year. Multiple sources told ESPN.com that VanGorder had signed a three-year deal when he joined Notre Dame. By comparison, previous Irish defensive coordinator Bob Diaco, now the third-year head coach at UConn, had made $672,824 in his final season with the school, according to tax records obtained by ESPN.com.VanGorders son, Montgomery, is a redshirt sophomore quarterback with the Irish, and Kelly said he addressed the coordinators dismissal with the signal-caller immediately.Asked if an in-season turnaround now must be coach-led or player-led, Kelly said: It starts with the coaches, its got to be coach-led, and theyve got to start the fire. Then those players that have that intrinsic motivation, that fire within, they will come along with us. Those that dont, were going to leave them along the side. But this is going to start with the coaches. ' ' '