Cam Newton is getting it wrong — again. He’s setting the wrong example for his young fans — again. He’s tightening the vice-grip hold that toxic masculinity has on the football community. Again.
During an appearance on the “Million Dollaz Worth of Game” podcast, Newton spoke about what he feels are the gender roles within a relationship. What he describes isn’t just antiquated — it’s flagrantly sexist.
Newton made a distinction between “a bad [expletive]” and “a woman.” He suggested that “a bad [expletive]” is a woman who “can’t cook” and “don’t know when to be quiet.” Newton said women are good at “handling your own but knowing how to cater to a man’s needs.”
Awful. Just awful.
Here’s a look at the full interview. The video includes expletives.
NFL quarterback Cam Newton complained about women who "can't cook" and "don’t know when to be quiet."
"Now a women for me is, handling your own but knowing how to cater to a man’s needs." https://t.co/Dzw3QMtpwI pic.twitter.com/WdYsetopRJ
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) April 11, 2022
Newton clearly can’t see that he’s perpetuating gender inequality. And in turn, he revealed that he has learned absolutely nothing from his previous public example of sexism for which he apologized for an “extremely degrading” response when speaking with a female reporter. He clearly hasn’t done the work to understand where he went wrong in that conversation in 2017.
During a press conference, reporter Jourdan Rodrigue asked Newton about a receiver’s physicality on his routes. His response was sickening.
“It’s funny to hear a female talk about routes. It’s funny,” he said.
Rodrigue shouldn’t need any accolades to get respect from Newton in a press conference — but I will add that Rodrigue is, indeed, an award-winning journalist. Man or woman, Black or white, straight or gay, cisgender or trans — Newton’s flagrant disrespect was loathsome.
But he doubled down in his interview this week. He had a chance to look at himself and how he treats women. He had a chance to study his wrongs and understand, as he said, that his comments were degrading. And he could begin to live a life that showed he was now the solution — not the problem.
He remains a part of the problem. He was outspokenly sexist. He is repeatedly ignorant — entrenching himself deeper in the mucky masculinity that is all-too-prevalent throughout the football world, from Pop Warner to the NFL. Newton, of all people, should be able to see the wrongness in his words — and his ignorant attitude toward the 3.9 billion women on this planet.
“I’m a person who got second and third and fourth chances in my life and yet through it all it should always be about what that person’s about, not what that person looks like,” Newton said in 2020 when asked about being the second Black quarterback to start for the Patriots. “And as long as I have this opportunity to impact and empower the community — whether it’s the Black community, whether it’s the white community — it doesn’t matter what community it may be, I just want to do my part as a good samaritan on Earth.”
If only he could take the time to see what he’s doing to the female community.
