The Unsinkable Cam Newton

Photo Credit: Getty Images

The 50th Super Bowl will take place eight days from now in Santa Clara,
California between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos. The clash
is being viewed as one for the ages because of the opposing storylines of the
quarterbacks involved. Peyton Manning, one of the game’s greatest at the
position, is possibly looking to do what John Elway did and ride off into the
sunset with another Super Bowl win. For Cam Newton, a Super Bowl win
would be the perfect finish to a nearly perfect season in the NFL. But there’s
been a heavy cloud hanging around this game, set squarely there because of
Cam Newton. He addressed it recently, by saying he knows it’s due to being
an African-American quarterback. The truth is, it is that and much more.

Cam Newton makes it six Black quarterbacks that have appeared in the big
game. So far, only two who’ve appeared have won it all - Doug Williams and
Russell Wilson. Cam’s appearance is to some, a sign of the talent many saw
as he led Auburn to a national collegiate championship in 2011 beginning to
truly take hold professionally. The former Heisman trophy winner has grown

as a QB, and become a major name due to a certain swagger he exudes. The

“dab”. The shoes. The dancing in the end zone. And with this swagger, this

confidence comes the inevitable brushback that appears whenever someone

confident of color makes a mark. You may know it as prejudice. 

There are those who’ll always throw shots at the successful, for different reasons.
In some cases, they have a bit more truthful weight - Cam has been dubbed “Scam”
Newton for his part in an incident involving a stolen laptop while he was at the
University of Florida and the involvement of his father in attempting to coerce money
from Mississippi State University in order for Cam to transfer there. Cam owned up to
the laptop incident & after being suspended by Auburn initially regarding the bribery
charges, he was reinstated by the college with the NCAA backing him. But it seems
that what rankles some these days is that Newton is having TOO much fun. Every
week this past season it seemed there was a letter written to some newspaper or
website that felt his dancing was too explicit & indecent. Yes folks, in a time where
Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers is a spokesman for State Farm based on his
pelvic gyration move patterned after a wrestler, Cam’s celebrations are too much.

Reading social media pages after each of the Panthers’ wins this season reeked of racism
& disgust boiled over in talk of “values” and “having respect for the game”. Yet we have
Johnny Manziel of the Cleveland Browns who HIT HIS GIRLFRIEND on camera, has gone
into rehab for alcohol and has flouted team rules to the point of allegedly wearing a
disguise while sneaking off to Las Vegas before a game being regarded by some as a
party animal. It’s not hard to tell why there’s so much ire for Newton. The Panthers
organization had their own questions before drafting him, even going so far as asking
Cam(at owner Jerry Richardson’s behest)not to get any tattoos or lengthen his hair.
This, despite other team members already having these. It was a move that in the
long run, was meant to preserve Newton’s persona as fairly clean-cut. Newton didn’t
have any real room to argue against it, what with how Michael Vick’s career came
crashing down and the failed careers of highly rated QB’s at that time like Akili Smith
and Jamarcus Russell. Look at Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers. He got to
the Super Bowl and there was a furor over his tattoos which led to the attempts to
label him a thug.

One has to consider that the quarterback is part of the American mythology
that has been constructed for decades. Football is one of the two sports we have
that we excel at without question that no other country can dominate. Why? Because
it is a game of controlled violence and keen intellect. And the quarterback is the one
to sort through it all & lead his team to victory. The Black NFL quarterback now is
still fighting to be well regarded within the league overall. While Doug Williams led
the Washington Redskins to a championship & Russell Wilson did the same with the
Seattle Seahawks, the difference between them and Cam is that Cam is more
outspoken & tied into contemporary Black culture. And he’s proud of it enough to
flaunt it. This is not a knock on Williams or Wilson - they’re reserved men who are
proud African-Americans. But that gets unfairly interpreted by a cross-section of white
America as being “respectable” or “knowing their place”. Same thing was stuck on
Donovan McNabb as a contrast to Michael Vick. In the eyes of these malcontents,
Cam is another bad Negro like Vick was. And the air of respectability confuses those
looking in - veteran & analyst Ryan Clark claims it’s culture, not race that is behind
the criticism of Cam Newton. You cannot separate the two. Not when you have a
league that historically has been at odds with the Black quarterback, either trying
to make him a wide receiver or defensive back upon being drafted or not drafting
them outright, giving them the only options of semi-pro football or the Canadian
Football League. Not when one of the bones of contention before the NFL-AFL
merger of the 1960’s was due to the prominence of Black players in the AFL and
their willingness to at least play Blacks at the QB position on a fleeting basis. 

Photo Credit: USA Today

Cam Newton is aware of this. He’s aware what drives these individuals to look at him
this way, call him these names. He knows that no matter how many touchdown footballs
he gives to little children, no matter the charity work he does, no matter that he’s a
Christian and a pescatarian, that a Black QB like him shouldn’t win a Super Bowl because
he’s arrogant.(he plays in the South, so I’m sure “uppity” is also in play.) he also doesn’t
give a damn. And that is not only fueled by his journey to this point, which includes a
near-fatal car accident two years ago, but the knowledge of other Black QB’s before him
who didn’t have a shot. Names like Joe Gilliam, Condredge Holloway. Names like Vick,
whose career was severely impacted by dogfighting & prison for two years, not to mention
some questionable coaching (looking at you Dan Reeves). Cam is fortunate to be in this
position with a coach in Ron Rivera who’s won a Super Bowl as a member of the 1985
Chicago Bears and a team of capable veterans. He’s fortunate that the Panthers are a
stronger organization than the 49ers, who have crumbled in the 4 years since their
last Super Bowl appearance with their coach leaving and player exits due to retirement
or drugs and domestic violence issues being too problematic to ignore. For what it’s
worth, I hope he dabs it up on Super Bowl Sunday. All the way to the White House.
Let the keyboard bigots and other social media trolls write a petition that will mean
nothing then. Because if Cam gets this first one, he’ll be on the forefront for quite a
while.