Sitting on the couch (or in the press box) and believing that you can do, or be better at, what professional athletes accomplish every day is outrageous. But thinking you can beat up a man who’s arguably the most physically imposing quarterback the NFL has ever seen isn’t just laughable, it’s proof of why you deserved to get your ass whooped.
Cam Newton stands 6’5” and weighs somewhere around 245 pounds, give or take. Running up on him is dumb.
He is a game-changer. Not a game manager.
On Sunday, social media was in a frenzy after footage showed Newton “knuck’n” because a group of men were “buck’n” at a 7-on-7 youth football tournament in Atlanta — Newton’s hometown.
It’s still unclear what caused the men to attack Newton, as he fended off the men with ease. Eventually, we’ll know more and all the questions will be answered, as Newton doesn’t shy away from things on his podcast or via social media. But this isn’t about why the scuffle happened, who was involved and what it means. This is about the one thing smart people have always known, which is that trying to fight a pro athlete is stupid.
The majority of them are real-life action figures. It won’t work out well for you. It’s why Newton’s hat didn’t move an inch while a group of men were trying their hardest to inflict pain on a man who probably felt nothing after those men gave their everything. “Newton, the No. 1 pick in the 2011 NFL draft out of Auburn, does not appear to throw any punches in the video and seems to be fending off three other people. There is one punch thrown in Newton’s direction, but it is unclear if it landed on the former quarterback,” read the report from ESPN on the incident.
It’s as if the group of men forgot who Newton was, or were somehow unaware of his resume. This is the man who was a part of those infamous Florida teams during Urban Meyer’s run with the Gators before he left the program allegedly due to a stolen laptop, in which he was potentially facing a felony. Newton then went to Blinn College, a place that the sports world had never heard of, and won a junior college national championship in his lone season. He did the same thing the following season, as he won the Heisman and a national championship at Auburn. He then became the No. 1 pick in the 2011 NFL Draft and produced one of the greatest rookie seasons we’ve seen from a quarterback. Four years later, he became the first Black quarterback to ever win MVP, outright. He also took the Carolina Panthers to the Super Bowl that season.
There are tons of reasons to make fun of Newton and think he’s a joke. He says stupid things — a lot. He wears weird outfits and hats and looks more like a comic book villain than a former NFL quarterback with his resume. And his views on women are terrible.
But despite all that, he can whoop the asses of 99.9 percent of people on this Earth. His middle name is Jerrell, which is very similar to Joe-El — Superman’s dad. That’s not a man you want to play games with.
In all seriousness, it was unfortunate that Newton was even put in a situation in which he had to defend himself, at a place where kids were playing, especially since he’s been an active leader in youth football in Atlanta for years. And given the current climate of America, and what took place at the Kansas City Chiefs’ parade, it’s even sadder that we have to be thankful that guns were not involved in this incident, as it was over a few seconds after it started. Hopefully, cooler heads will continue to prevail.
But in the end, Sunday was a reminder that thinking you can engage in fisticuffs with pro athletes who play a sport in which ridiculously strong men routinely grab, tackle, push, pull, and hit each other is really dumb. It’s like Bomani Jones pointed out on Twitter/X, Cam Newton and Pacman Jones both went to Westlake High School in Atlanta. “Leave those Westlake dudes alone, man. Just leave ‘em be.”
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Carron J. Phillips
