Cam Newton is on top of the world right now. He just finished off a 15-1 season as quarterback of the Carolina Panthers, is the odds-on favorite for the MVP award, and now gets a week off to rest and spend time with his newborn son Chosen, his first child with his longtime girlfriend. It’s a wonderful time in his life, and we only hope he enjoys it without having to see the crap that some people insist on shoveling about him.
First it was the pearl-clutching over his dancing, and now the Charlotte Observer has published two letters to the editor scolding Cam for having a child out of wedlock (this despite him being in a long-term relationship with the mother). Now, these aren’t the expressed views of the Observer, but they are published under the headline, “Does Cam Newton’s Unwed Fatherhood Set A Bad Example?”
Here’s a snippet of one of these letters (emphasis theirs):
So the man whom we celebrate, and with good reason, has produced a son. Congratulations would be in order if he had been man enough to marry the mother of his child and make a home.
Forgive us for rolling our eyes, but it’s quite frankly ridiculous that Cam is so consistently singled out for doing what plenty of other NFL players, not to mention people all over the country, do with regularity. He’s been excellent all season, both in his football performance and his deeds to children in the community, and he still isn’t shown the same golden-boy gleam that his white counterparts at the quarterback position enjoy (Tom Brady had a child out of wedlock, after all).
If we went off the deep end scolding everyone for their opinions about Cam Newton (well, more than we already have), we wouldn’t be much better than these letter-writers, so we’ll cut this short by saying one thing: Let Cam live.
(Via Charlotte Observer)
