Former Auburn All-American Cam Newton said his participation in the third season of the FOX TV series “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” had given him something he hadn’t had since he was an NFL quarterback.

“Special Forces,” which airs at 7 p.m. CST Wednesday on FOX television stations and re-airs on the streaming service Hulu, features a cast of celebrities tackling training exercises used to select the United States special operations forces. Through three of the six episodes of the series’ Season 3, Newton is among the eight from the original cast of 16 still participating.

“The common question with doing this show has been: Why did you do it?” Newton said during his most recent “4th and 1” podcast. “And I keep coming back to the same thing: I wanted a challenge in my life. There’s times being a pedestrian, and I say this jokingly, but being a regular person in the normal, everyday life, you forget about really what made you great, and you have to shelve that. Those emotions, that dark side, that fearlessness of, like, I can go into that person, I can go into that character, and it takes little to no effort. I need a reason. …

“As a normal person, there’s not a lot of things that really scratches your competitive itch of just the ferocity that I played with. There’s probably nothing in my life that I can compare it to or have outlets to unleash it. During the show, I’ve had opportunities to do that, and it made me realize a lot of built-up tension that a lot of athletes mask for the rest of their lives. Call it CTE, call it just competitiveness, call it a little off your rocker, call it — I call it great. But all that to say, that show really got everything out of me in regards to: I wanted to see if I was afraid. I wanted to be scared. I wanted to — and it sounds crazy — but I wanted to, the way that football may enforce me to react. There was fearful moments, there was scared moments, there was uncertain moments, there was anxious moments. There was anxiety, there was excitement, there was rage. There was just fulfillment, there was joy, there was happiness. The adrenaline — I have not had nothing in real life after football that meets that.”

Highlights for Newton on the program have been a leap from a moving boat to a moving helicopter and a fight against one of his fellow contestants.

Newton said his participation on the program had filled a need in his life.

“Why are you skiing?” Newton said. “Why are you surfing? Why are you riding a motorcycle? Why are you doing these things to put your way of life in jeopardy? But you still do it because of the thrill. You need it, and I don’t think a lot of people understand you really need those outlets. …

“Because if you don’t, then that’s when you go crazy.”

Despite all the positives that he took from the program, Newton said it was a once-in-a-lifetime event for him.

“I had fun,” Newton said. “It was a good life experience. Would I do it again? (Expletive) no.”

Newton said his participation helped him appreciate what the military members who make it into the special force go through.

“When the title states ‘the world’s toughest test,’ this is a normal day as a Navy SEAL, a Marine, you know, like being in the Army,” Newton said. “So the sacrifices that they’ve made to prove, to earn the right to protect and serve this country is something that I would say I took for granted. Doing it yourself and seeing certain things that you did, it’s like, ‘Oh, wow, y’all did this.’ And we was there long enough to to be like, ‘OK, I get it.’ And then there was also things was like they were saying, ‘Man, we’re there for months.’”

After winning the Heisman Trophy while leading Auburn’s 2010 BCS national-championship team through an undefeated season, Newton entered the NFL as the No. 1 pick in the 2011 draft. He played in the NFL through the 2021 season. Along the way, Newton set the NFL record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback and won the Most Valuable Player Award for the 2015 season.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.