Last week, NFL free agent quarterback Cam Newton was the subject of scrutiny following his appearance on a podcast. On Friday, he defended himself.
During the podcast, the 32-year-old athlete made questionable comments that could be taken as sexist. The quarterback stated that women “don’t know when to be quiet” and often “don’t know how to allow a man to lead.”
Given these statements, many accused Newton of misogyny and holding disrespectful opinions of women. After days of backlash, the three-time Pro Bowler published an 8-minute video on his YouTube channel in which he attempts to explain his point of view. Throughout the video, he argues that his words were taken out of context and that he does not hold sexist opinions of women. Within the nearly 10-minute video, he does not apologize for his commentary because he believes that society is “sensitive about topics that need to be brought to the forefront.”
Cam Newton argues that his comments were taken out of context
“When you’re doing a podcast there’s multiple topics that’s being thrown at you at a time…if you want to scrutinize and look at every single thing that I said, you can’t just pick two lines. Look at the totality,” the NFL player said of his appearance on the podcast.
In addition, he explained that his commentary was not reflective of sexist behavior because he didn’t get the chance to describe his point of view. Newton attempted to clarify that his initial comments were supposed to describe the type of situation in which “you can’t expect so much from a person and give so little.”
Although he never apologized for the specific statement he made, he recognized why his sentiments could be offensive to fans. With this being said, Newton expressed that he stands by his appearance on the podcast, but knows “going into depth” would’ve been more helpful.
In addition, rather than saying he should not have said women don’t know when to be quiet, Newton shared that he should have also mentioned a male counterpart. “I should have said on top of what I also said and mentioned, that not only should a woman know when to be quiet, a man also should know when to be quiet,” he shared.
Newton also claimed in the video that he “never wanted to demonize or to shrink the woman’s power in America”, but concluded the video that he believes in his right to express an opinion.
