Those who have watched the Carolina Panthers all season long understand what quarterback Cam Newton has had to endure, as he has gone from playing the best football of his career to laboring through a debilitating shoulder injury that has helped derail both his team's season and his own. But for those who haven't watched Newton and the Panthers, the facts concerning Newton's injury don't matter: Only the narrative does.

Following Newton's last stand on Monday Night Football, where he played his worst game of the season before ultimately being deactivated on Wednesday, the shock jocks and detractors who have always counted on him to fail have seized on the opportunity to recycle the same, tired narratives they have utilized Newton's entire career. Such detractors - the sort that prioritize being provocative over being honest - need not have their message peddled or granted any legitimacy to.

Though anything outside the locker room is noise to the Panthers, it isn't as if they haven't heard what has been said about Newton. And in speaking of his quarterback's injury, running back Christian McCaffrey took a moment to chide those who are trying to suggest that Newton's struggles through injury reflect poorly on him as a player.

"I hate to see all the negative stuff going his way," said McCaffrey in a report by Max Henson of the Panthers. "Because if people really knew what he was going through, they’d bite their tongue a little bit."

In the aftermath of Monday Night's game, the people who really don't know what Newton has been dealing with talked loudest. That may have been expected: Most people did not see the first half of the Panthers' season, when Newton was performing at a level that had him in the mix for his second MVP Award, given that the Panthers have only had two primetime games the entire season.

As a result, few have seen the way Newton's season has progressed. And even fewer outside of the Panthers organization have seen the effort that Newton has put in just to try and stay on the field.

"No matter how much you push, no matter how much you ice, the anti-inflammatory you take ... Trust me, I’ve done it," said Newton in the aftermath of Monday night. "Acupuncture, massages. There’s not a night that goes by without me getting some type of work done on my arm."

Of course, the opinions of those outside of the walls of Bank of America Stadium generally aren't worth listening to. But the Panthers have had to deal with a great deal of outside noise in the second half of the season, and have always had to try and dispel old, busted narratives about their quarterback.

In time, those narratives will be proven wrong once again. But it'll have to wait until next year.