The altercation that broke out between Cam Newton and opposing coaches at a youth football tournament was the result of trash-talking gone too far … so says two men involved in the scrap, who claim things only got physical after the ex-NFL quarterback initiated contact.

TJ and Steph Brown — coaches for Top Shelf Performance, where Cam used to help out — shared their side of the scrap on Monday … and they insist the former Panthers superstar is to blame for the ugly scene.

“It just should never have gotten to that,” TJ told Fox News Digital … adding Cam had been jawing at him throughout the weekend and demanded they place a wager on their game.

“Cam jumps out of his car and yells, ‘Hey, all that sorry s*** ain’t gonna work today. What we betting today? What we betting?'” TJ continued. “I’m like, ‘I ain’t betting you, bro. I already beat you three, four times. You got to beat me first.’ He like, ‘What we betting? I got plenty of money. I ain’t ever running out of money.’ That’s when I told him, ‘That’s your problem. All you care about is money. You think money is everything. You can’t buy me.’ And I walk off.”

TJ claims just three minutes into their matchup, Cam continued to taunt his old colleagues … saying, “‘Hey, I know that play. That’s my stuff. I taught y’all everything y’all know. I’m y’all daddy. I made y’all. I’m the reason for everything y’all got going on.'”

When the coaches confronted the former NFL MVP, TJ said Cam grabbed Steph … which led him to react by throwing a punch.

“He’s just got to understand we’re people,” he added. “Nobody’s just going to let you go around disrespecting and talking crazy to them. I know how to brush it off, but not everybody’s like that.”

Worth noting — Cam’s C1N Red team was still able to end up with the victory on Sunday … with Newton congratulating his squad on the 15U championship.

Despite the incident, the two coaches hope to bury the hatchet with Cam and move on … as they consider him a brother.

We covered it all on the latest episode of The 360aproko Podcast, available on all podcast platforms.