While other young quarterbacks around him have regressed, the Carolina Panthers’ Cam Newton has only improved. With the Panthers now 9-0 on the season, there’s increased attention on Newton as not only the face of the franchise but as a potential MVP candidate. Not all of this attention has been positive, however, especially after his celebratory dance during last Sunday’s win over the Tennessee Titans.  Many were quick to deem Newton’s elaborate touchdown celebration excessive. Titans head coach Mike Mularkey suggested it might have bordered on a breach of the NFL’s forever fungible code of ethics. Mularkey said this a day after Carolina outscored his team by 17 points, so it’s fair to say he may be biased. ESPN’s resident Hot Take specialist Skip Bayless, never one to shy away from imposing his own incoherent standards on a well-known athlete, made it clear that he was not a fan.  Now, these reactions were about what was expected. What stood out, however, was an a letter to the Charlotte Observer written by a concerned mother, Rosemary Plorin. In the letter, which quickly went viral as these things do, Plorin described how she was shocked and appalled by Newton’s gyrations on behalf of the nine-year old daughter she brought to the game:  Because of where we sat, we had a close up view of your conduct in the fourth quarter. The chest puffs. The pelvic thrusts. The arrogant struts and the ‘in your face’ taunting of both the Titans’ players and fans. We saw it all…  My daughter sensed the change immediately – and started asking questions. Won’t he get in trouble for doing that? Is he trying to make people mad? Do you think he knows he looks like a spoiled brat?  I didn’t have great answers for her, and honestly, in an effort to minimize your negative impact and what was otherwise a really fun day, I redirected her attention to the cheerleaders and mascot.  Ignoring the fact that cheerleaders are partial to some pelvic thrusting of their own, the letter concludes with Plorin admonishing Newton: “what you modeled for them today was egotism, arrogance and poor sportsmanship.”  The letter inspired conversation across the internet, mostly of the mocking kind. Twitter quickly made parallels between her “think of the children” tone and that of the Simpsons’ Helen Lovejoy. Others noted that the complaints sounded an awful lot like those the Ed Sullivan Show received after inviting Elvis Presley to perform. You know, back in the 1950s.  More incisively, Deadspin’s Greg Howard make a compelling case that the language used in Plorin’s letter, along with Bayless’s comments, perpetuated the stereotypes that continue to surround African-American athletes: “We still see it all the time,” wrote Howard. “Like with Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, who two years ago made the play of his life and then sent the nation into hysterics by having the audacity to be fired up in a postgame interview with Erin Andrews. He, like Newton and any number of black athletes who went off the safe and paternal script, forgot his place.”  As Howard and other commentators pointed out, the coverage of Newton’s celebration took on a much harsher tone than that of backup quarterback Drew Stanton’s jubilant (and awesome) sideline dance during the Arizona Cardinals’ win over the Seattle Seahawks. In that game, starting quarterback Carson Palmer made a much more suggestive hip-thurst during that game, one that may earn him a fine, yet hasn’t garnered nearly as much scrutiny.  In fact, this hasn’t even been the most ridiculous Newton-related controversy of the month. During Carolina’s home game against Green Bay, Newton confiscated a pro-Packers banner an opposing fan had brought in (in doing so, the fan had violated stadium policy). What seemed to be a harmless show of competitive spirit became a farce when the fan reported the banner as stolen to stadium officials. One can only imagine how this conversation must have went:  “Sir, can you describe the person who took the banner?”  “Yeah, he’s the guy in the helmet and the uniform with the No1 on it.”  “Wait, you mean Cam Newton?”  “You want us to arrest the starting quarterback of the Carolina Panthers at the Bank of America Stadium. On game day. For taking down a sign you weren’t allowed to bring in the first place.”  “I think we’re done here, sir.”  Clearly there’s something about Newton that inspires opposing fans to have such extreme reactions, especially since the loudest complaints about him involve the fact he seems to be having fun playing a game for a living. What a puzzling and puritanical way to live one’s life as a fan. If there’s no room in sports for moments of triumph and joy, what’s the point of even following them?  In response to all of this ridiculousness, Newton has said that he’s not going to change how he plays. Good for him. There’s a lot of things wrong with the current state of the NFL, when every other day seems to bring a new unsavory scandal, but the fact that an athlete can enjoy himself while still leading his team to victory week after week shouldn’t be one of them.
Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton is the most fun player in the NFL and it’s driving his critics to extremes