Cam Newton Doesn’t Think Race Has Anything to Do With Criticism: "We’re Beyond That As a Nation"

Cam Newton doesn’t think his race has anything to do with the criticism he frequently receives from NFL fans.

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Complex Original

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Cam Newton may have won the NFL’s MVP award last season after guiding the Panthers to a 15-1 regular season record and a Super Bowl berth, but that didn’t make him immune to the kind of criticism that’s been lobbed in his general direction since the start of his NFL career. In fact, you could argue that Newton’s success led to him facing even more criticism. Between November and January last season, Newton was publicly shamed for everything from dancing in the end zone after scoring touchdowns and being an unmarried father to handing footballs out to little kids and chucking a Seahawks fan’s flag.

We could sit here and argue all day about why Newton was subjected to the levels of criticism that he faced, but most people believe that race played at least a small part in Newton’s frequent character assassination. If a white quarterback had done some of the things Newton was criticized for last season, would he have faced the same wrath of NFL fans? Probably not.

Newton doesn’t necessarily see things that way, though. He’s featured on the cover of the latest issue of GQ and, as part of his cover story, he was asked to talk about what role he thinks race plays in the criticism he faces on a regular basis. His answer? None. Here was the exchange Newton had with GQ writer Zach Baron:

GQ: Do you feel like football fans are racist toward you?

Baron was quick to point out that there’s a good chance Newton answered his questions the way he did because he didn’t necessarily feel comfortable speaking about race at the time. Newton and Baron had only been talking for about half an hour when the topic of race came up. But as you might imagine, Newton’s comments haven’t gone over very well, especially the part about America being "beyond" race issues. So many people on Twitter are up in arms with regards to what Newton had to say:

You can check out the entire GQ story on Newton here. Outside of discussing race, Newton also talks about overcoming the Panthers’ Super Bowl 50 loss, his unique sense of style, and more.

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