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Cam Newton is our runaway Jerk of the Week for sexist comment to reporter 

Cam Newton wears No. 1 on his jersey, which was fitting this week because he was the number-one jerk in the world of sports.

Cam Newton wears No. 1 on his jersey, which was fitting this week because he was the number-one jerk in the world of sports for finding it "funny" that a female would be asking him about football stuff.

"It's funny to hear a female talk about routes," Newton said in response to Charlotte Observer reporter Jourdan Rodrigue's question Wednesday. "It's funny."


In the words of Joe Pesci, "Funny how? Funny like a clown? Do I amuse you?"

Except nothing was funny or amusing about Newton's response and, in the end, it was just the latest example of how big of a clown he can be. Last year, he was benched for violating a simple team rule that requires all players to wear a tie. Newton has been criticized, fair or not, for playing with passion and celebrating on the field too much, and for being less than professional following his Super Bowl 50 loss. All of that was dredged up this week.

Cam Newton has a history of doing some unwise things, and this was among the most egregious.
Cam Newton has a history of doing some unwise things, and this was among the most egregious. (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

For all the good things he does on and off the field, all he does in the community, Newton has a history of doing some pretty dumb things, and his comment this week certainly falls into that realm. Thinking and saying it was funny to hear a female talk football was clearly one of those things, especially because he's been covered by female journalists his entire career.

Yet, it was not the first time Newton has belittled one of them. Five years ago, he called another female reporter "sweetheart." Ugh.

Newton has since apologized for his sexist reaction to a perfectly fine football question about the play of teammate Devin Funchess. He released a video Thursday night on Twitter in which he gave what felt like a sincere apology to anyone offended by his comment. He's been praised for it, and now it's water under the bridge.

Among the voices that have accepted his apology is former Daily News columnist Lisa Olson, who has been a victim of disgusting, sexist behavior on the job.

If Newton's apology is good enough for Olson, it should be good enough for the rest of us.

But that doesn't diminish how big of a jerk Newton was this week. You can make an argument he is merely a product of a culture he's grown up in, a culture that has not been kind to women in the past. From the NFL's handling of domestic violence issues to the sexism female reporters like Olson and Rodrigue have endured to the completely sexist tradition of putting scantily clad female cheerleaders on the sidelines of football games from elementary school on up through the pros, it's no surprise why someone like Newton may have felt that a woman asking him about receiving routes was funny or amusing.

But all that does not excuse Newton.

Imagine if Rodrigue said she thought it was funny that a black man was up there talking about the quarterback position. Years ago, and even in some racist circles today, there are those who believe QB is a position that can only be played by white players.

The play of Newton and other black quarterbacks has challenged that dim theory and over time, black quarterbacks have proven they are just as good (and bad, at times) as white QBs. In the same context, female journalists continue to work hard and smart to break similar stereotypes, which is why it was all the more distressing that a guy who's had to prove he can do his job was up there making a joke out of a woman trying to do exactly the same thing.

So this week was an easy one. There was clearly no bigger jerk in sports than Newton.


Not long after Rodrigue made national headlines, it was discovered that she, too, can be a jerk. Before Newton apologized for what he said, she had to apologize for a series of racist tweets that were easily dug out of her Twitter timeline from five years ago.

Here's a rundown of the since-deleted posts:


December 2012: "My dad is being super racist as we pass through Navajo land."

August 2013: "He's the best. Racist jokes the whole drive home."

May 2013: "The earth moves at 450+ mph that's 10 times triller than NASCAR Dale Earnhart's a b---h n----a."

This makes her a jerk on two levels: one, that she thinks racist jokes are funny and apparently has no problem using/writing the N-word; and two, that she is a big enough jerk to actually post those thoughts on Twitter.

Of course, this does not excuse what Newton said to Rodrigue. It should also not make this a race issue that somehow makes one of them worse than the other.

It just makes both of them jerks.


Michael Bennett.
Michael Bennett. (Ted S. Warren/AP)

You have no doubt been glued to news coverage of the Las Vegas massacre this week. Two Las Vegas police officials have appeared regularly on TV to walk us through the events of Sunday's tragic shooting and piece together what they know about the killer.

For sports fans, we've met them before. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Joseph Lombardo and Undersheriff Kevin McMahill have been defending their officers against profiling claims made by Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett.

Before the shooting, we last saw them walking the media through a video released last Friday that seems to back up the police. Though there is a piece missing, where Bennett was actually cuffed, video shows Bennett was not profiled when police responded to what they thought was an active shooter in a casino. A week later, and after Sunday's mass shooting, we know now those cops were responding to a situation after the Mayweather-McGregor fight in August they believed was basically the same thing: a madman with a gun in a public place.

The video also shows a huge crowd of people down on the floor, responding to instructions to stay down — and one person running away. That one person was Bennett.

We're not calling Bennett a liar, as some already have, but the video does prove he was not profiled. The video shows why police pursued him and detained him, and it shows them explaining this to Bennett and acting professionally when it was all over.

Bennett has not spoken publicly this week about what the police video shows. But in the rush to judgment on both sides of this important debate, plenty has been said and written about the incident that cannot be retracted. Racial profiling and police brutality may not be evident on the Bennett video, but you are a jerk if you think that just because they aren't in the video that they don't exist in society.

And if it turns out Bennett was not being completely honest or may have exaggerated or let his emotions dictate his very public complaint against those cops, all three of whom are minorities, then he should apologize and work to bridge the gulf that exists between cops and the community.

If not, he's a jerk and his credibility in a very serious and important discussion on race in this country is at stake.


Finally, the Raiders donated $50,000 to Las Vegas massacre victims this week. You should know that Las Vegas is giving the Raiders $750 million in public money to build a football stadium, making the team seem like a lot more than cheapskates. It sure makes them look like jerks.

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