The angry Tennessee Titans mom who doesn’t know how to talk to her daughter about dancing quarterbacks — specifically, a dabbing Cam Newton — at least has some ammunition on her side now.
With the Carolina Panthers set to face off against the Denver Broncos in a little under two weeks for Super Bowl 50, one would expect a natural rise in white-hot Newton opinions. (Trust me, I’ve had mine. They were awful, too.) While no one from a major news outlet has opined too harshly about Newton yet, a group of (presumably) Seattle Seahawks fans have made it their life’s work to see that Newton never steps foot on to the hallowed grounds of CenturyLink Field again.
Change.org, a popular petition site, has a page called “Ban Cam Newton From Century link field (Ban The CAM).”
The letter to the Seahawks states “Cam Newton is one of the most unprofessional, unsportsmanlike individual on the face of the planet. So I say for the 2016-2017 when the Panthers come to play in Seattle he should be banned from entering the stadium. This should teach him to put his arrogance in check!!”
One supporter says “I’m signing because that poor sportsmanship and not a good role model for kids in that way!!!”
Another replied “I freakin can’t stand this c*** arrogantguy” (censorship added).
Amazingly, the word “class” —- an awful buzzword used to preserve the fairy tale of sportsmanship that, in reality, died with the dinosaurs aeons ago — doesn’t appear one time.
Frivolous movements like this —- Ban the CAM currently has eight supporters — are usually nothing to get too excited about. However, the notion that athletes must be emotionless robots sent from the heavens to protect the moral fabric of our ever-crumbling society is not only wrong, it’s hilarious. Sports are fast, physical, sometimes violent and always emotional. They are all, however, forms of entertainment. No one acts 100 percent with “class.” Last month, Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews looked as though he was extending a hand to Carson Palmer after driving Palmer to the turf. Instead, Matthews pulled his hand away in a gesture that missed only an accompanying middle finger.
Matthews’ teammate, Aaron Rodgers, has a touchdown celebration. In fact, said celebration was, in turn, celebrated in an ESPN feature:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcwa2EvQ61Y
But when Newton dabs, it’s classless, confusing for young children and he’s a thug. So, sure, go on thinking every day racism has been instantaneously solved.
Athletes dance. They talk trash to one another. (You should hear the things they say to their own teammates.) They celebrate when they make a play. But athletes also give back to the community. They’re family men and women, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters and friends. In short, they are people. And people are far too complex to be shoved into a tiny box of misused words like “arrogant.” The Cam Newton that dabs and the Cam Newton that takes underprivileged kids on a shopping spree? They exist within the same person.
You’d think of all fans, Seattle would know this:
(H/T PFT Commenter)
