He smiles, dances and gives balls to kids. So why all the hate for Cam Newton?
This season, Cam Newton’s level of play, and the according level of notoriety, has risen sharply. But along with the acclaim for a star quarterback playing at an elite level, so, too, rose a furor from those who see the face of the Carolina Panthers as more villain than hero.
He dances, he smiles, he hands footballs to young fans — each action rustling up irate radio callers or a flurry of letters to the editor. For his part, Newton maintains he doesn’t care but with his Panthers playing in Super Bowl 50 on Feb. 7, the conversation around the perception of perhaps the NFL’s best player will only intensify over the next week.
It’s an issue that bubbled up and intensified during the regular season. Newton’s joyous touchdown celebrations triggered many angry letters to the editor of the Charlotte Observer, with a Tennessee Titans fan asking how she could talk to her daughter about dancing and dabbing quarterbacks, concluding by calling Newton a “spoiled brat.” Another letter-writer criticized Newton later in the season for having a child with his girlfriend outside of marriage.
Never mind that the appropriateness of suggestive dance moves might be better directed to the NFL’s cheerleaders. And never mind that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady also fathered a child out of wedlock. It was Newton that earned their ire.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/01/29/he-smiles-dances-and-gives-balls-to-kids-so-why-all-the-hate-for-cam-newton/?tid=pm_sports_pop_b
The author may be at least a little inaccurate when she claim Tom Brady did not get any anger directed at him for having a kid out of wedlock. The criticism of Brady may have been as a result of him seeming to dump his pregnant girlfriend and not that he was having a kid outside of marriage. However, Brady did face some condemnation over the birth of his first child.
I am not trying to contradict the idea that Cam Newton is criticized because he is black; I just wanted to point out that Brady did get some form of criticism over the child he had with Bridget Monynahan. I tend to believe a large amount of the criticism of Newton is due to the fact that he is black. However, there is the fact that Russell Wilson does not seem to get the same amount anger directed at him as is directed at Newton.
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