Watch: Cam Newton snaps at kid who heckled him about Super Bowl
Aside from the obscene money, the fame and the adulation of millions of fans, being a pro athlete can be tough.
The time and effort athletes put into their careers is very real, despite the asinine complaint of sports detractors who say “they’re just playing a children’s game.”
Aside from that time, effort and practice, one of the most important things any successful athlete must have is a borderline nasty competitiveness.
Michael Jordan wasn’t just an athletic marvel. He was (and likely still is) one of the most maniacally competitive people on the face of this planet.
But at what point does that competitiveness creep over into immaturity and/or poor sportsmanship? In today’s world, it’s a perilously thin line between the two.
And it’s a perilously thin line that Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton is a little too familiar with.
Newton’s latest incident occurred at a football camp in Bradenton, Florida, last weekend during the NFA 7v7 playoffs. The video of the incident was uploaded Monday.
In the video, kids can be seen needling Newton.
“Hey Cam, can I get a fumble?” asked one the kids, referring to Newton’s lackluster effort in his team’s Super Bowl 50 loss to the Denver Broncos.
https://twitter.com/FantasyJunkie24/status/696530991108771842
“Did you tell Von Miller ‘Happy Father’s Day’?” another heckler said. Miller, an elite pass rusher for the Broncos, made Newton’s life miserable in the Super Bowl. Newton fumbled twice and was sacked six times in Carolina’s 24-10 loss to the Broncos.
While Newton seemed content just bickering with the hecklers, one of the kids eventually set him off.
“Stop playing, I’ll fade you,” one of the kids said. To “fade” someone appears to be a gang euphemism for murder, but also is used to mean “disgrace” or “punch.”
“You’re gonna do what?” Cam snapped back, getting right in the kid’s face.
In fairness, those kids were being disrespectful punks. But by the same token, Newton is the adult and the professional athlete. He should be above all that.
With his Panthers being good-but-not-great since Super Bowl 50, Newton unfortunately has found the majority of press headlines surrounding him to be on the negative side.
There was the immature and moody way he dealt with reporters following his Super Bowl loss. Newton kept his hood up and gave the sparsest answers imaginable.
Then there was the time he lost his big endorsement deal with Dannon Yogurt for the way he handled a female sports reporter. Many deemed Newton’s response sexist.
Here's the video of Cam Newton saying "it's funny to hear a female talk about routes" pic.twitter.com/hd9Kg4CCeu
— 94WIP Afternoons (@AfternoonsWIP) October 4, 2017
That’s to say nothing about what has happened since Super Bowl 50 in terms of football. Things have mostly been downhill since Newton won his first and only MVP award that season.
The Panthers have gone a mediocre 17-15 in their two seasons since the Super Bowl, including 0-1 in the playoffs. Newton, the former No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 NFL draft, also hasn’t quite recaptured the magic that helped him become the 2015 NFL MVP.
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