I don't know Cam Newton. I've never covered him on a beat, and even if I had, I still wouldn't really know him. I only know what I see of Newton.
Most of all I see an MVP-caliber quarterback ready to lead the Panthers to a 24-20 victory against the Broncos in the Super Bowl on Sunday. I also see a player who likes to strike poses after big (or medium) plays and does a “dab” dance to celebrate touchdowns.
It’s that flash that’s fueled Newton’s critics. Some opponents, including the Falcons, have bristled at Newton’s antics. Media critics tsk-tsk him. In November the Charlotte Observer published an open letter from a Titans fan, in which she admonished Newton for not being a good role model for kids because of his “egotism, arrogance and poor sportsmanship.”
She doesn’t know Newton, either. Darron Rogers does. He was Newton’s basketball coach at Westlake High. When Rogers sees Newton dancing on the field, he laughs it off as the antics of a man who “always has been like a big kid.”
“Man, Cam is having fun,” Rogers said. “He’s not poking fun at the other team. He’s not bringing attention to himself. He’s firing up the crowd, firing up the team, firing himself up.”
There are other ways to do that, of course. I think Newton’s on-field prancing can be a bit much. I’m an older guy now, though, so I’m probably no longer cool enough to appreciate it. And I’m not upset because Newton is having the kind of fun that’s not my kind. Plenty of people love it.
Ivan Johnson knows Newton, too. They played basketball together at Westlake. Johnson sees Newton dancing on the field and views him as a guy who’s showing off his roots.
“He’s a product of College Park sports,” Johnson said. “Some may think it’s showboating, but that’s what we do in that area of College Park. He’s celebrating his victory. He’s really happy. It shows his passion for the game.”
That Newton is a demonstrative black man playing the most high-profile position in football adds another variable to perceptions about him. Newton ignited the conversation last week when he said: “I’m an African-American quarterback that scares people because they haven’t seen nothing that they can compare me to.”
Some critics wondered what Newton meant. After all there have been lots of black quarterbacks, including some with running skills. Newton is the sixth black QB to start a Super Bowl and this is the fourth consecutive Super Bowl with a black QB starting.
I think I know what Newton meant. There have been other black quarterbacks, but none like him: built like a defensive end yet nimble and skilled like a running back. More to the point, there has not been an “unapologetically black” quarterback like Newton: loud and proud and hip-hop, forget what anyone thinks.
Newton’s supporters note that there are white players who are similarly demonstrative but don’t take as much heat for it. One of those players, Texans star J.J. Watt, came to Newton’s defense this week. “Football is game, it’s supposed to be fun,” Watt wrote on his Twitter account.
Ira Joe Johnson, Ivan’s father, knows Newton. He’s upset by some of the criticism directed at Newton, but adds: “I’m not saying it’s a race thing.”
Instead, Johnson said he’s disappointed that all of the fuss about Newton’s dancing obscures a larger, important truth about the “playful” kid he remembers.
“There’s nothing wrong with the dab but he’s more than that,” Ira Johnson said. “He’s a man of character. He’s also about academic and professional excellence.”
Johnson and Rogers both noted that Newton graduated early from Westlake so he could enroll at Florida. Newton last year completed his Auburn degree to fulfill a promise to his mother. But Newton’s college days were controversial, too.
Newton left Florida after he was charged with receiving stolen property. He ended up at Auburn, where he won a national championship and the Heisman Trophy. Before that the NCAA charged that his father, Cecil, solicited cash payments from Mississippi State during Newton’s recruitment.
Cam Newton has owned up to making a mistake at Florida. He was never implicated in his father’s alleged pay-for-pay scheme. Anyway, that’s only a violation because of the NCAA’s sham “amateurism” rules that prevent star players like Newton from seeking their true market value.
“The computer stuff and the stuff with his dad, that shouldn’t define him,” Ira Joe Johnson said.
Some people will always hold those things against Newton. Others will never like his dancing on the field. Those people don’t know Newton.
They know him at Westlake, and Rogers said they are all in for Newton.
“Everybody is out of their minds about Cam and the game,” Rogers said. “We are not thinking about the Falcons. Sorry. And I’m a huge Falcons fan.”
He’s a bigger Newton fan. He’s not alone.
“He’s really a genuine guy,” Ivan Johnson said.
“Give the man his due,” Ira Joe Johnson said. “If you don’t know a person, look deeper.”
