Cam Newton Says a Dumb Thing
Of course by the time I managed to finish this one the whole ordeal has run it’s course, but I didn’t want to let Cam slip by without a little bit of fun, because I felt like a loyal TV show veteran who suddenly watched the writers take a character he liked in a bad direction. “No Cam…don’t say that…awww”
For anyone who missed it, or for anyone possibly reading this years later after we all forgot about it, let’s recap:
-Female Beat Reporter for the Charlotte Observer asks Cam question about Routes
-Cam says “It’s funny to hear a female talk about routes”
-Reporter goes up to Cam afterward, Cam does no apologize and makes it worse
-Story goes public
-Shit meets fan
-Dannon drops Newton as a spokesman
-Cam defenders go out of their way to dig up old tweets to publicly shame Beat Reporter
-Cam eventually uploads a pretty good apology video
-We all find something else to be mad at
-I finally finish the comic on the topic
First up: what Newton said was totally sexist. He’s at fault here. I think only Cam truly knows exactly what tone or inflection he truly meant it in, but ultimately someone in his position has to know not to say something like that even if he wasn’t being sexist. Women absolutely follow football and can learn all the same stuff we can about it. Playing ball only makes learning a bit easier. Cam has to know this by now, but maybe he didn’t.
Secondly: This single mistake doesn’t define Cam. I think the biggest bummer I had about this was that, as a long time Cam supporter, I knew this was about to get blown up and used as ammo by people who already dislike him as further proof that “he’s a big selfish arrogant thug etc whatever”. Cam said a dumb thing, and might genuinely believe the dumb thing, but he still gets a huge amount of unfair hate and there is absolutely still more to him than this
Thirdly: I actually was impressed by his apology video. That was far and above what you normally get out of a person of interest who gets caught saying a dumb thing. He didn’t send out some tiny official statement obviously written by his agent, or carefully offer a non-apology in a press conference (I’m sorry OTHER people were offended, etc), he went and taped himself giving a full apology on camera directly. Even if it was a little scripted, and even if he only did it because of the backlash, it’s still far more than we usually get and he may have even learned something. To anyone who says “Yeah he only learned because he lost a sponsor and started getting hate” well…I mean if he learned his lesson I’m fine with that.
Fourthly: All the nutso Newton defenders who dug up years old joke tweets by Jourdan: weak sauce. Cam said a dumb thing, just because you are on his side doesn’t mean you can’t admit he screwed up. The tweets they found to “shame” Jourdan Rodrique were extremely weak. One was her mimicking a popular over the top Bye Nye parody account, and another was her making light of her dad making racists jokes. As far as evidence that “SHE’S JUST AS BAD”….nah. If that’s the best you could come up with you got nothing. None of that was even close to the same level of Cam. Her tweets were made when she was like 19, Cam is in a job where public relations is a thing you have to know. I’ve retweeted the same Bill Nye parody account. There is no comparison here, she has the moral upper hand. And she still apologized first.
Fifthly: Though her dad seems like a dick, I mean who names their kid “Jourdan”. That is “parents want to make their child spacial so they spell a common name all weird” 101. Jourdan. It’s like Kaytlynn, or Rebekkah, or Khrysta, or Kimberli, or Emalee, or Viktoria, or Carlee, or Aimee, or Hayleigh, or Lauryn, or Rumplelstylskyn. Stop doing this to your children.
Anyway Inside Out was an okay movie, kinda overrated.
Dave you are the first person I’ve seen say Inside out was overrated. I applaud you. Also this was a pretty good comic, even if you missed the opportunity for dumb tweets you’ve sent out over the years.
” Rebekah” is the biblical version of Rebecca. It’s not really a special version of the name, just a little outdated. But I do agree with what you said about Cam and Jourdan.
The bible is more than a little outdated at this point, who would have a name spelled the same way it is in the bible in 2017
(Looks at my own name)
Oh shit
Eli.
The Biblical version is Rivkah. But Dave also spelled it with two K’s, so it’s still an unnecessary alternate version.
let’s ask Kaytlynn, Caitlyn, Caitlin, Kate-Lynn, Catelyn, and La-a what they all think of the “weird things to name your kid” situation
Viktoria is actually the German version of that name by the way.
And Aimee is French.
Even though I don’t think those names are bad, it should be illegal to give kids the fucked up names I’ve come to know.
CTE Cam x Mr. Andy?
What came first, The Numbskulls or Herman’s Head?
Yeah I was pretty disappointed to hear Cam say that to the reporter. Like come on man, you need to get your shit together! You can’t say stuff like that, even if you didn’t mean it in a sexist way.
I will object to your portrayal of Cam’s fashion sense. Dude is fly.
Late Thursday night I was ready to put money on the fact that today’s comic was going to be some play on Nick Folk/Roberto Aguayo.
Opps
1. Am I the only one who thought he sounded quite stoned in his response?
2. I interpreted it as a dumb person trying to ask smart question about topic gets laughed at by questioned person that actually understands said topic. Cam made extremely stupid response calling out females.
Now, you’re probably thinking this dude is high..
Let me explain, at least a little. Have you ever had the friend who used words thinking they knew what they meant only to come across like a jack ass trying to sound smart by using words they didn’t really understand? I think that’s what happened here – a reporter comes across as dumb to the quarterback because the QB understands what’s really going on and that “physicality of routes” is just a bullshit phrase the reporter pulled out trying to sound smart and deep in the game.
Seemed to me that his response should’ve been talking about how it’s funny to hear reporters talking about routes, but he said what he said. And it was awful. And uncomfortable to watch.
I didn’t find his response offensive at all. This PC culture has gotten out of control, and this was blown up and exaggerated way out of proportion. Why can’t Cam find it funny for a female to talk about routes? It’s not like the NFL has hired a whole lot of female coaches yet. He answered her question directly after saying it…
Reporters with soft skin like that shouldn’t be working in journalism, and if she were on my staff I’d fire her for her conduct in that situation.
Have you ever considered one of the reasons the NFL hasn’t hired many women is because the NFL is full of attitudes exactly like Cam’s here? An attitude of dismissal of people simply because of their gender? Saying the reporter needs thicker skin is exactly the kind of flippant dismissal of a complaint that makes it so hard for women to get the same respect men do in the workplace. Not only that, it’s basically saying “know your place”, like she shouldn’t call out shittiness when she sees it. I think she has thicker skin, because she actually said something instead of just dealing with it and not letting a sexist comment go by. Cam basically dismissed her as a football journalist simply because of her gender, and that’s shitty. He deserved to get called out for it.
Honestly though, it wasn’t blown out of proportion, this is the new normal. What you say matters. Normally Cam is smarter than this.
“Have you ever considered one of the reasons the NFL hasn’t hired many women is because the NFL is full of attitudes exactly like Cam’s here?”
Call me crazy, and I definitely deserve to have Antifa come to my house and kill my and my entire family for even daring to utter such hate speech that upholds the Patriarchy(TM), but maybe there aren’t many female coaches because there hasn’t even been one female NFL player because they can’t compete at the same level as men at just about all the positions due to innate biological and physical differences. I know, I know, obviously I am just a dumb flyover redneck who supports Fronald Blumpf because of this and that my attitude wouldn’t fly in such an enlightened town as Portland.
Yeah… except you don’t need to play to be able to coach. You also don’t have to be a football player to know about them. I would never make it as a player in the NFL, but I find coaching interesting. It’s like a game of chess, or a turn-based war game. I buy your argument for women not playing the sport, but I don’t think it translates well to coaching.
Also… screw antifa.
You’re right, Bill Belichick didn’t play, guess he doesn’t know jack
The Jordan tweets are weaksauce
Cam uses the word ‘female’, Rodrigue literally calls Dale Jr. a ‘nigga’.
Fuck off, Dave.
You are focused on the wrong things in both cases. The word choice wasn’t the problem here.
The fact that Cam used the word “female” isn’t what people found offensive. It’s that he flippantly laughed at the idea of a woman knowing football. That’s what people found offensive.
Her tweet, and use of the word she did, was explicitly an imitation of someone else’s gimmick account, where using inappropriate slang is literally the joke. It was also made many years ago, back when we were all a lot less bothered by ironic internet slang. Dragging it up now just to make her complaint against Cam somehow invalid is weaksauce.
I am a huge fan of yours, and of all the hilarious and true things you’ve written here, I am going to make a nit-picky comment because this is the internet, after all!
He didn’t tape that video himself. It was professionally produced (there’s somber lighting and soft focus background). If he’d done it himself it would’ve looked more like a Snapchat video or something.
I mean yeah, but he still did it, and it was still more than most players would have done, which is what impressed me most. I fully expected a twitter non-apology statement from his agent instead of an actual video and attempt to make things right.
Cam wouldn’t look out of place as a Team Fortress 2 character with all those hats.
Saints fan here. I have never been a big Cam fan. Living in South Alabama, I hear the name “Scam” Newton fairly regularly. My completely ignorable opinion is this. Cam said something people didn’t like. People who don’t like it can go screw themselves. Because which of you that disagreed say everything right all the time? Hold him to a higher standard because of his spotlight? You can do that if you want to I guess. But the reason society is the way it is today, in terms of all the PC crowds, well, you’re part of that. So congrats.
How about this? It’s over now, let’s all move on. By now, there’s probably something else happening that will divide us all and make us mad at each other over something else right? Let’s try finding one team we can universally agree on disliking? This sounds like a good waste of our time and energy.
Oh and for what it’s worth, I like the presentation of this comic. It’s funny. And that’s why we read the comic right, to be entertained. Also, I agree on your opinion on Inside Out. Kinda overrated.
I agree that the PC crap is getting out of hand. Personally, I wouldn’t have apologized and galdly lost the sponsors. Cam can survive on the bank he’s making from football. However, his sponsors can be pc about it, as does the public. If Cam cares, and apparently he does, then he has to appease them. But that’s on him.
Unpopular opinion here but Dave I Can’t believe you would say such a thing. What warped sense of taste would lead you to believe the things you do I just Can’t wrap my head around it. I loved inside out I feel like it accurately represented the feelings children can have in a way Children can relate. Sometimes us adults get caught up in kids movies that try to cater to the adults as much as the kids but i feel like inside out properly spoke to its target audience which is the kids.
Also spot on about Cam I feel like it was a tasteless comment that he did not mean to come off the way it did. though I don’t mind all the backlash against them as I feel the panthers are almost as bad as the Saints but I may be biased. Anyways keep up the good work Dave.