C'mon, man! Newton needs to know better than to use sexist remark

ESPN has a segment on its popular show “Monday Night Countdown” in which analysts choose something strange, funny or unbelievable that occurred during the previous week’s football-related events and have a good laugh about it. 

The segment is called, “C’mon, man.” 

Not everything ESPN does appeals to me personally, but for the most part “C’mon man” is fresh and fairly clever. 

Courtesy of sportingnews.com

I doubt Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton’s recent exchange with a female reporter will make the next installment of “C’mon, man” — probably a bit too controversial, I’m guessing — but it definitely should.

Here’s the background: 

During an Oct. 4 media availability, Charlotte Observer reporter Jourdan Rodrigue asked Newton about passing routes run by Panthers receiver Devin Funchess during an Oct. 1 game vs. the New England Patriots. 

Newton, standing at a podium in front of about 30 media members, flashed a big smile and in a rather quiet voice — some might say “childish” — he giggled, “It’s funny to hear a female talk about routes.”

He finally got around to answering the question, but not before adding another “it’s funny” and another big smile. 

Getty Images 

As with just about any highly awkward exchange in a public setting, the interview room went silent with lots of people sharing stunned looks that seemed to say, “Did that just happen?” 

Now quoting from Charlotte Observer sports columnist Scott Fowler’s Oct. 4 column: 

“After the news conference, Rodrigue wanted to find Newton and talk about what he said. She did catch up with him briefly. The conversation, according to Rodrigue, was not taped but went something like this:

She asked the quarterback if he really didn’t think a female could understand routes.

Newton said she wasn’t really seeing specific routes when watching the game, she was just seeing if somebody was open. She argued that he didn’t know what she saw nor how hard she had studied football, and that maybe the two of them needed to have a deeper conversation.

Newton said that maybe he should have said it was funny to hear “reporters” talk about routes and that, if she actually did know about them, then she knew more than most reporters. Then he gestured toward the locker room, still filled with her colleagues.”

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/scott-fowler/article177107336.html

My background as a journalist encompasses nearly 30 years of covering and writing about sports. In that time I have been in lots of locker rooms, and I’ve witnessed thousands of athlete-reporter exchanges. I’ve also worked alongside several female reporters. 

I am aware that female sports reporters face many more challenges than their male colleagues. Gaining acceptance in the locker room, interview room or playing field can be a arduous task for any outsider, much less a woman who must endure subtle forms of sexism like sidelong glances, sexually explicit language and condescending responses to the questions they ask.  

Courtesy of thebiglead.com

Although I do not know her, I feel badly for Rodrigue, not because she’s a female sports reporter, but because she is having to deal with being thrust into the national spotlight for simply doing her job. I do not doubt that she already received a great deal of support from her sportswriting colleagues, both male and female. Unfortunately though, to some she will always be known as the woman who had the run in with Cam Newton. Moreover, she’s likely to receive letters, emails and other forms of Internet communication from neanderthals who, athletically speaking, haven’t progressed beyond junior high P.E. class much less an actual team sport.

The idea that a female reporter couldn’t possibly comprehend a sport like football is pretty laughable. Shoot, the idea that any reporter can’t grasp something like a passing route is ridiculous.

When it comes to fielding reporters’ questions about in-game nuances, athletes often have a you-never-played-the-game mentality. Although it never seemed to be the appropriate time or place, I often thought of retorting, “Yeah, and you’ve never had to write a game story and a sidebar on deadline, so just shut up and answer the question.”

Courtesy of sportingnews.com

Getting back to Newton and his exchange with Rodrigue … it’s hard to believe he meant anything beyond a crappy attempt at humor. I doubt he intended to embarrass or demean. 

But that’s what he did, and he’s got to know better than that. And he’s certainly not the first athlete to show cluelessness when it comes to “reading the room.” 

I once had an experience in which I was the last reporter out of an NBA locker room. I wasn’t mocked, ridiculed or threatened in any way, but I sure did feel uncomfortable when one player began teasing another about the darkness of his skin. I was asked, jokingly I assume, if I’d ever seen a black man with such dark skin. 

I gave an awkward little chuckle and quickly begged off the question as the player who was being teased gave me a sympathetic look. 

“He doesn’t want to hear that,” he said to his teammate. 

No, I didn’t. 

C’mon, man. 

Editor's note: Since writing this blog, I've seen a few news stories pop up regarding Jourdan Rodrigue and some tweets she posted at least four years ago. The tweets in question were racist in nature. There is no excuse for such things, but Rodrigue owned up to tweets and has since apologized. However, that does not erase Newton's behavior. 

I'm reminded of the old saying, "Two wrongs don't make a right." 

Those tweets are likely to make for some awkwardness as she moves forward in covering the Panthers. But, again, they have zero bearing on Newton's inappropriate response to her question.