Nobody in the football world has it better than Cam Newton right now. He is the front-runner for the MVP Award. He led his team to a 15-1 regular season, winning the NFC South. He has them at 2-0 in the postseason this year, with dominating wins over Seattle and Arizona in back to back weeks. Most importantly, he has his team in the 50th Super Bowl, the franchise's second appearance in the game, looking to win it for the first time. He also will be the sixth black quarterback to start in the Super Bowl, along side Doug Williams, Russell Wilson, Colin Kaepernick, Donovan McNabb, and Steve McNair.
But in Newton's breakthrough season, leading the league in wins, throwing for over 3,000 yards, accounting for over 40 scores and leading his team to the Super Bowl, he has been scrutinized. In games, if he scored a touchdown, he would celebrate with a dance and then "dab" which is another dance that has become synonymous in this season with the Panthers. Many have called him a "thug" for his antics and many have criticized how he acts when he scores.
In turn however, when someone like Tom Brady, or Rob Gronkoswki scores, they spike the ball and celebrate. When Aaron Rodgers scores, he mimics that he has a championship belt, which has been dubbed the "Discount Double Check," thanks to State Farm. Travis Kelce punched a ball out of the end zone after a score, and so on.
The difference between Cam Newton's celebrations and those mentioned above is that, Newton is a black player and all of those players mentioned after him are white. Believe it or not, that's why football analysts, and other people have been calling him a thug. Much of his criticism has had shades of racism behind it. Newton even said in an interview very recently that "I'm an African American quarterback that may scare a lot of people because they haven't seen nothing they can compare me too." Hell, earlier in the year, a mother wrote a letter to Cam Newton, telling him he should be a better role model, and directed her daughters attention to the cheerleaders.
Newton may have had a couple of issues in college, including stealing a laptop when he was at Florida and supposedly his father accepting large sums of money for him, who was transferring from a community college, to go and play for a big program school, but those are behind him. He's grown to a mature young man, who likes to have fun on the field, and in reality, no one can compare him to anything they've seen in the NFL. He's the size of JJ Watt and plays quarterback; he runs like a freight train of a running back and can throw a deep ball that other QB's wish they could throw. He's a one of the most unique and dynamic players the league has ever seen.
I personally don't have a problem with Newton doing what he does. I think it's great, he's out there, having fun, he has the best team in the NFL. But everyone else does and that's an issue. If someone like Aaron Rodgers can do what Newton does, he would be called out as having fun. But when Newton does it, he's a thug and full of himself. But he has called out his critics and detractors and is not letting them get to him. He's going to continue to have fun, his team is and the city he plays for is. Keep on dabbing Cam, keep on dabbing.
