In case you missed this, a few days ago Cam Newton appeared at the NFA 7v7 East Regional held at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It’s a football tournament, and the former NFL MVP’s foundation sponsors some of the participating teams.
In other words, Newton was involved because he wanted to help, and be of service, and be decent to young boys involved in the sport he loves.
Which makes this so fucking infuriating …
I am father of two kids—and if either one talked to an adult the way this teenager spoke to Newton … man, oh man.
Phone—gone.
Social media—gone.
Any sort of allowance—gone.
Every effort to apologize in person to Cam Newton—enforced.
I’m not kidding. Just watching the clip, I found myself overcome by anger. It doesn’t matter if Newton is an all-time great quarterback (which he is) or a dentist or a garbage collector or an accountant or a sports writer—there’s just no excuse for speaking to him with such blatant derision and disrespect. And I wonder, truly: Where does that come from? How does a young person see Cam Newton at a football camp he’s helping to fund … and think, “You know what I should do? Insult him in front of my peers and have it explode across social media. That’ll be great.”
Again, it’s infuriating.
I haven’t seen the kid identified, and that’s a good thing: He’s young, he’s full of adolescent goop, he’s probably (I’d hope) a bit ashamed.
But there’s no excuse here.
It was terribly wrong.
