Cam Newton Says Race a Basis For Criticism

Derick E. Hingle/USA Today Sports The reason people don’t like Cam Newton, Brandon Marshall says, is generational, not racial. I don’t think he wants to be known as an African American quarterback. “The last Super Bowl team was good and they had some great players but this team has so much character and they’re easy to love”. “I think that is what drives him, to be able to transcend those boundaries, which I think is great”, said Rivera of Newton.

“It’s shown since the first day I arrived here”, said Panthers tight end Ed Dickson, a Super Bowl victor with the Baltimore Ravens, who has two receptions for 22 yards in the postseason.

“I’m an African-American quarterback that may scare a lot of people because they haven’t seen anything that they can compare me to”, Newton told reporters as he prepared for Carolina’s showdown with Denver on Feb 7. “Go back to when he was a rookie and he said, ‘I want to be an icon.’ You want to be an icon, you can’t stay in the box, you have to get out of the box, you have to be disruptive”.

Folks, here’s the deal.

“I think Cam is mature enough, he knows what he’s up against”.

He’s a showboat? And, what’s with all those So You Think You Can Dance moves? You don’t like that he’s black? You guys have been around Cam his whole career, and you see the confidence he has when he sets up behind those five hog mollies. They are the mouthy, cocky, young bunch with a coach who embraces that personality. “Even when he gets a first down he doesn’t do anything”. I don’t want to watch football’.

Kubiak introduced a Broncos tradition, which he described as “Wise Words”, whereby any player or coach in the organisation could end a team practice by uttering a short prepared statement of advice or encouragement.

My goodness. There are so many layers to this stupidity that I don’t know where to begin. People like boxes. Cam Newton has turned out to be too big to fit into any of them. There’s just going to be some natural hate from opposing teams and their fans.

RE: Other players you’ve seen that have had the locker room effect Cam has?

As he has been doing ever since he returned to Denver in early 2015, a little over a year after he was sacked during his eighth season as head coach with the Houston Texans, Kubiak has led by example with an emphasis on team unity. The only thing that’s changed is we’re winning. I thought they fitted things up very nicely.

“It’s amusing we still fight that battled based on what?” The Broncos’ defense had to play extraordinary football to beat the New England Patriots when the offense couldn’t get a first down in the fourth quarter, stopping Tom Brady a few times on third down, fourth down, and even on a two-point conversion.

Newton said he’s comfortable in the position he’s in now and could not “care less what you say” about him. “Because when you win, that’s going to give them something else to talk about”. This year he’s in the conversation for MVP.