Newton attended Jones High School where he played football, basketball, wrestling and shot put.
Although he had Division I colleges recruiting him, he chose to remain close to home and accepted a football scholarship from Florida A&M University.
[1] Although he was selected by the Tampa Bay Bandits in the 1983 USFL Territorial Draft, he opted to sign as an undrafted free agent with the Washington Redskins in May.
He started out as a reserve offensive lineman, and was nicknamed "the Kitchen" because he was bigger than William "the Refrigerator" Perry, of Chicago Bears fame.
[6] In 1992, because of the improved play of Erik Williams, he was moved back to left guard, in order for the team to have the best player combination possible in the offensive line.
His ability to protect quarterback Troy Aikman and to run-block for running back Emmitt Smith helped the Cowboys win 3 Super Bowls in 1992, 1993, and 1995.
[11] Five weeks later, on December 12, 2001, Newton was again stopped in Texas and was arrested after a search of his vehicle revealed he possessed 175 pounds of marijuana.
[13] In April 2010, Newton, who once weighed as much as 411 pounds, underwent "vertical gastrectomy", a surgical operation, by Dr. David Kim, that removes up to 75 percent of a patient's stomach and staples the remainder.
Newton's son, Nate III (nicknamed Tré), was a running back at Carroll High School in Southlake, Texas, and was a key contributor for the Dragons' two consecutive 5A football state championship teams in 2005 and 2006.
Tré would go on to play running back for the University of Texas, although his career was cut short due to re-occurring injuries.