Last season was a trying one for Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, who labored through a shoulder injury until it became too much to bear, the team shutting him down in mid-December.
His offseason has included shoulder surgery, and the Panthers say he’ll be ready for the team’s opener in September. But during an appearance on the “Late Late Show With James Corden,” Newton talked about his other self-improvement plans
“In March — and I hope this is an adult crowd — no climax,” Newton said in discussing his various offseason regimens, which also include veganism. “I’m going through a transition right now.”
After actor David Boreanaz, sitting next to Newton on Corden’s sofa, astutely suggested that he should have chosen February as his month of chastity because it only has 28 days, Newton said he chose the longer portion of the calendar because it posed a greater degree of difficulty.
“I wanted it to be challenging,” Newton said. “I’m coming off shoulder surgery.”
It’s all about mental vigor, you see.
“It makes my mind stronger,” he said. “So when the season comes around, I say if I did those things, I’m mentally stronger.”
Whether abstinence will actually have that effect on Newton is up for debate. Beverly Whipple, a leading sexologist and the co-author of “The Science of Orgasm,” told Broadly’s Hanson O’Haver in 2017 that she was unaware of any medical benefit to abstinence.
“I would know about this if there was something scientifically to it,” said Whipple, who has a PhD in psychobiology.
But Nan Wise, who has a PhD in cognitive neuroscience, told O’Haver that there might be something of a placebo effect with such a plan.
“When it comes to sexuality, you always have to look at biological, psychological, and social stuff,” she said. “Here’s a place where the power of belief is going to determine what people experience, and their experience is going to confirm their belief. For people who believe that abstinence is going to help them, the belief itself may be driving some of the benefits.”
More NFL coverage:
NFL competition committee proposes expanded use of instant replay system
John Clayton: Free agency grades for all 32 NFL teams
Bruce Arians keeps his promise, now has two women on his Buccaneers coaching staff
Le’Veon Bell says Ben Roethlisberger was ‘a factor’ in why he left the Steelers