I agree. To a point.
I don’t think that’s correct. Outside of a few numbnuts, I don’t see Russell Wilson, Tyrod Taylor, and Teddy Bridgewater being chastised for their dances or selfcongratulatory posing. But I do see Johnny Manziel and Tebow being excoriated for theirs. I don’t think it’s a race thing (at least in this one area), but rather a showboat thing.
There are plenty of reasons to despise Cam that have nothing to do with his race. Cam was a criminal at Florida and then his dad solicited bribes to get his son to enroll at other SEC schools. I’m positive Auburn boosters paid his despicable ‘reverend’ father 6 figures to buy the national championship. As a Carolina Panther, Cam gets all pouty and has no hesitation in throwing teammates under the bus. He’s had a great season in 2015 and has become even more of an insufferable jerk. The dancing, celebrating minor feats such as a first down , and ripping down signs has made him a Grade A asshole.
Showboating athletes do cause splits among fans. Remember the criticism Bautista took after the bat flip? Yasiel Puig is also one of the most reviled MLB players.
Showboating athletes caus splits among players. They are poison in the club house.
Submitted by an SF Giants fan who watched admittedly one of the most talented players ever poison the public and the team. His great skills were almost enough to overcome his poison and lead the Giants to a World Series championship. Almost. They were 8 outs away until it all caved in, in 2002. It still hurts, so much more than the hurt of 1989.
That’s a pretty harsh thing to say about Jeff Kent.
Funny. Everyone else knows I’m talking about Rich Aurilia.
ETA: Kent wasn’t even on the Opening Day roster that year due to a motorcycling accident he denied. That was Kent’s last season with the Giants. He was in Houston in 2003.
Bolding mine. Examples?
I would normally be inclined to agree with you, but I see a lot of racially-coded language around him, like calling him a “thug” - if Tim Tebow did the same things that Cam Newton does, no one in the world would ever call him a thug. Dude smiles a lot and celebrates, and even if you listen to the criticisms - acts pouty when he’s not doing well - none of that is thuggish in the least. Having his dad take bribes to get him to sign at a school isn’t thuggish either.
Would anyone ever call Rodgers a thug for doing his little discount double check belt?
I think there’s more tolerance for showboating at other positions - QB is viewed as one of the few typically white positions in the NFL and so black quarterbacks, not being the norm, face greater scrutiny. But if they’re quiet and mild and don’t rock the boat, they’re one of the good ones - like Bridgewater or Taylor (Dale included Russell Wilson in the list of thuggish Seahawks players, not sure why) - but even a tiny lack of meekness from black quarterbacks raises ire.
From this morning’s Onion:
*MURRAY, KY—Adamantly stressing that his disdain for the 26-year-old quarterback is not based on any racial prejudice toward African Americans, local 49-year-old Michael Willet told reporters Friday that he would hate Cam Newton even if the Carolina Panthers star was a different minority. *
Oh, I agree. Thug has no place in a description of Cam. Showboat? Sure. Self-aggrandizing? Yep. But thug is clearly a racially based term and has no place in a description of Cam.
But I think that’s true for most QB’s, not just the black ones. Manziel raises ire. Tebow and his idiotic pose certainly raised ire.
But the media and fans reaction to Cam are certainly too tainted with racial issues to have a legitimate discussion about him, I think.
I think Cam Newton is uppity. 
Those are two outliers though. Tebow got criticism because of the whole Christian thing (and not being very good). Manziel got criticism for the whole partying business (and not being very good).
I would not begin to suggest that it is the case no black athletes are wel lrespected and no white athletes are ripped. (Of course, in the case of Manziel, much of the criticism is due to his being a total flop as a football player.)
However, I think it the case beyond reasonable dispute that black athletes are held to different standards, and treated differently, that white athletes for the same behaviour. It is indisputably the case blacks were institutionally prevented from being quarterbacks for an incredibly long time, to the point that Warren Moon had to serve time in the CFL just to prove he was actually good. I could point out any number of examples in, well, ANY sport. PK Subban and Brad Marchand were treated completely differently in their rookie years; behaviour that in Subban drew vicious criticism and announcers saying he should do things “the white way” were in Marchand regarding as him being “scrappy” and other positive things. Black players are said to be athletic, white players “hard working.” If a black player does anything as an individual, he’s “selfish,” but when Cal Ripken Jr. decides he wants to make his own hotel arrangements and not stay with his team, he’s… well, Cal Ripken Jr., the Man Who Saved Baseball! If Tom Brady yells at a teammate, he’s the team leader. When LeBron James did it, he’s a jerk.
Tom Scud’s reference to Jeff Kent is a great one. People hated Barry Bonds for being an alleged clubhouse cancer, and Bullitt seems to kind of be blaming Bonds for losing the 2002 World Series - Bonds batted .471 with four home runs despite being walked 13 times in that series - and yet if you looked at the facts, Jeff Kent was at least as much of an asshole and possibly more so. He was white, though, so he mostly got a pass. And Bonds was poison to the public? Not in San Francisco while he playing. He was loved there. Shit, I was there, I saw it. They went bananas when he came up. They flocked to him pregame for autographs (Bonds was much more patient with the general public than with the press.) If you’re saying he was poison to the public, that’s historical revisionism. The press outside SF didn’t like him, and not all fans outside SF liked him, but IN San Francisco he was a god.
What am I to think of someone talking about annoying football players and just happening to name Cam Newton, Russell Wilson, Marshawn Lynch, and Richard Sherman, four guys who are rather obviously nothing at all alike except for the fact that they’re black? Newton’s nothing at all like Wilson, who had none of the same college controversies and tries as hard as humanly possible to be media-friendly and inoffensive; Sherman is witty and irreverent, and Lynch is taciturn and withdrawn. What the common thread is among those guys I can’t begin to explain except that they’re all black, two of them playing a position black men are discouraged from playing.
Manziel is his own worst enemy.
I think if Manziel was half as good as Newton on the field, he’d be mostly known for being a patron saint of frat boys and people would create a narrative of how he’s an old school quarterback who parties hard and shows up for gameday. It’s his on the field failure combined with his personal failings that make him a circus.
Two words: Ryan. Leaf.
Funny, but there’s this article: Ryan Leaf Comments on Johnny Manziel, Drug Abuse on Dan Patrick Show
Gronk is pretty much the NFL’s patron saint of frat boys. Which brings up another point.
Think about all the various off field things Gronk is known for:
http://deadspin.com/tag/rob-gronkowski
He’s ADORED by the media. Can you imagine the reaction to him if he was black?
qft +1000.
I think Jack Hamilton addresses this silliness quite nicely.
Yep.
Huh. Didn’t expect the issue to be a cultural crisis.
Me, I think Cam looks happy and relaxed out there. His team just went 15-1 and topped the NFC in spectacular fashion, but he was like that even before this year. Can you imagine what it is like to BE Cam Newton? Stronger than fuck, and with a chance to earn a Super Bowl MVP? At what, 25? And he does charity cancer kid events, he even did one for one of my friend’s relatives. How good does he have to be to get some credit? I’d be dancing too if I were kicking even half as much ass as this guy.
It is controversial that he is black? This is 2016, not 1966. What if he were Asian? Or a WOMAN? I think genetically-gifted-superwoman-football-player-lady is coming sometime soon in the future. Think Ronda Rousey, only with more super musculature ultragenes. And taller. THAT will sell papers.
Newton is black? Ya don’t say. Who cares? I would like him the same if he were white (ftr I am a big honky, not Newton big but bigger than most people, big nose even, honky all the way).
The question is: Will he perform the same against the Denver D? And how will Manning and the Denver O perform in Super Bowl L?
I hate the two-week gap between the conference championships and the Super Bowl. So much airtime/blogtime to fill by talking heads with not enough to say.