The Ringer NFL Show - 5. Charlotte | The Cam Chronicles

Episode Date: August 10, 2020

Cam takes the NFL by storm while contending with differing attitudes about who he is and what he looks like. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you're listening to this episode and don't want to wait till next week to hear where the story goes, head over to Spotify. All episodes of the Cam Chronicles are available for you to binge for free right now in the Ringer NFL show feed. The 2011 NFL draft is officially open. Backstage at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan, Cam is looking Easter Sunday clean in his gray three-piece suit with his pink tie and baby blue shirt. With the first pick in the 2011 NFL draft, the Carolina Panthers select Cam Newton, quarterback Auburn. After he hears his name called, he hugs his mother, Jackie. Cecil points a finger toward the sky to praise God before adapting his son.

What Mark of Cam asked for? He made it. He had a $22 million contract. He's just the third black quarterback ever taken first overall. after Michael Vick and Marcus Russell. He's the face of a franchise in the focus of the football world's attention. But Cam faced a barrage of criticism

from the press in a run-up to the draft. People said he wasn't a hard worker, that he'd be out of the league in a couple of years. One critic said Cam has a track record as an undependable, non-trustworthy, fake rai-rah leader. They remained a fundamental misunderstanding of Cam, even after his success at Auburn, he still didn't fit the prototype

of what a franchise quarterback looks like. Here's Slate's Joel Anderson. Most often, college football heroes are really humble black running backs or like beloved white quarterbacks. You very rarely get the arrogant, confident, leading man that's a black man like Cam Newton, right? Because the quarterback people tend to think of

is like that's a manager within the huddle and within the locker room. Kind of like your businessman type of dude. Cam ain't that. You know what I mean? Cam carries himself a little bit differently, and that can be disorienting for, you know, people that assess quarterbacks

and look at the history of guys that have particularly played that position. But that is their fault. That is not Cam's fault. From the Ringer, it's the Cam Chronicles. I'm Tyler Our Times. Cam had a very clear idea about his ambitions in the NFL

and what kind of player he wanted to be, even before the draft. Jonathan Jones, a writer who covered the Panthers for the Charlotte Observer, remembers the backlash Cam faced when he told Sports Illustrated as Peter King that he wanted to be a, quote, entertainer and an icon. And that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way because it's like, yo, get on the football field and do something before you talk like that. It's like Joel said, Cam's brashness and bold personality didn't fit the stereotype

of how quarterback should behave. And he also didn't look like a quarterback NFL fans were used to seeing. As Joel explains, many white fans lacked an understanding of where Cam came from and how his upbringing shaped him. Man, Cam's from Atlanta, dude. You know what I mean?

Like, I think people get that confused because NFL fans and white fans in particular are sort of like not familiar with like black people in general, but there's like something about Atlanta where black people are so much a part of the landscape where black people can flourish there unlike many other places. So it's like, I mean, I guess we don't know,

I'm trying to say is like if you're a black American, I'd argue Atlanta is like one of a handful of cities where you can be yourself more than anywhere else. So whenever I see Cam wearing ridiculous hats or clothes or, you know, posting in a weird font that I ain't never seen before, I'm like, oh, Cam is just an Atlanta-ass nigger, man, you know? And people just like read all sorts of other things into that. And I just like, yo, like if you knew more black people,

if you knew more black people from Atlanta, you wouldn't take this cam shit so seriously. You would enjoy it like I do. Still, some draft analysts like NFL networks Mike Mayock, who is currently the Raiders general manager, wondered if Cam was worth using the top pick on. Mayock said he had a bad feeling about Cam. Just a gut feeling, huh? Unfortunately, for me, it all comes down to a gut feel because I'm telling you, Linz,

the kid has every ability to make every throw. He's a better athlete than Vince Young or Tim Tebow. and I hate to say it, but at the end of the day, my gut tells me he's going to be happy with millions and millions of dollars. And in today's NFL, and Lin, you hear me say this all the time about the quarterback position. After God and family, if football's not next, then I don't want you all my team. This kind of criticism of Cam was common leading up to the draft. But there was no intellectually honest argument that Cam wasn't the best quarterback prospect in the class, that he wasn't a good leader,

that he would become lazy once he started making money. These were indefensible positions. If there was a white quarterback with the same stats as Cam, there's no way you could convince me that he would be criticized this way. Those attuned to how black athletes

had denigrated in the press could hear the dog whistles, like ESPN's Bobani Jones. There was no other way to look at this other than racism. Cam's former coaches and teammates didn't just say Cam was a hard worker. They said he was the most dedicated athlete in the locker room. The dude who made his junior college coach read books to prepare him properly for the season. The leader who took

his receivers out for hours of additional training after practice was over. That's the guy who gives you a gut feeling that he's going to just take the money and run. Still, Cam's talent was undeniable. He was too good of an opportunity for the Panthers to pass up. But his team only only said in an interview with Charlie Rose, there would be certain expectations for the team's new rookie quarterback. I said, do you have any tattoos? He said, no, sir, I don't have any. I said, do you have any piercings?

He said, no, sir, I don't have any. And I said, we want to keep it that way. And then he told me that he thought about letting his hair grow out. And I said, we want to keep no tattoos, no piercings. and I think you got a very nice haircut. You sound like a Lombardi. No, I just sound reasonable to me. Maybe this sounds reasonable to Richardson,

but his logic is flawed. Richardson was tapping into a long-held understanding about the relationship between ownership and labor in the NFL. The players, most of whom are black, work at the pleasure of their bosses. It's why sports sociologists Harry Edwards described the NFL as having a plantation mentality. Rather than making demands on Cam's appearance,

Richardson should have simply realized his organization was damn lucky to have Cam. See, at the time, it wasn't much of a professional sports culture in Charlotte. For much of its history, the city was known more for NASCAR and college basketball than for pro sports. The Panthers arrived on the scene in 1995. They had a few NFC championship game appearances, even a Super Bowl, Bo-Berth, but by 2011, they were coming off their second worst season in franchise history. That all changed when Cam hit the field on his very first NFL game. 77 yards! Cam Newton's first touchdown pass of the NFL! I mean, look, his rookie year, he lit the league on fire.

That's Max Henson, who was a writer for Panthers.com for nearly a decade. In his first two games, Cam passed for 854 yards. the most by rookie in NFL history. Blink Yards twice and Cam is on his way to being the best young pass in the league has ever seen. It's also clear that he ain't lost any of his exuberance. Newton running. Newton gets in the corner.

Cam celebrated touchdowns by getting on one knee and playing air guitar. His celebrations, which he crafted on the dusty fields in Brenham, Texas, were now being broadcast in high definition from NFL stadiums. When he turns on the charm, everybody's eating out of the palm of his hands. I've seen it happen just in the locker room when he walks in after practice. And the way, if he decides to either start dancing or turn a Beyonce song on, he just has a magnetism. Cam was the perfect ambassador for the franchise.

My first year covering Cam, I was waiting for him to go into his press conference post-game. And there were some young guests in the locker room who were getting a chance to kind of meet some of the play. two young boys. One of the kids asked Cam if he'll take a picture. But right before they were getting ready to take it, and Cam was like, okay, let's do it. He saw Cam's watch, and he was like, oh, that watch is awesome. It was like some big, like bright red watch.

It was eye-catching. And Cam was like, well, what do you want, the picture of the watch? And the kid looked at his friend, and he was like, I mean, I'll take the watch. So he's like, okay. So he takes it off his wrist, literally gives the watch to this kid who puts it on his. And then Cam was like, all right, let's get a picture. I just remember the look on the kid's face, jaw drops, like can't stop looking at it. Did this actually happen? I'm wearing Cam Newton's

watch. And then he just walked into the press conference and did his thing. At the end of the season, Cam was voted the NFL offensive rookie of the year after throwing for over 4,000 yards and scoring 35 touchdowns. It was clear he was on the way to becoming a national superstar. And just looking around the city, you just saw a lot more. Panthers logos. You know, when I first got here, you didn't see a whole lot. Then every brewery you went to, people had Panthers beanies on and were wearing Panthers swag. And it was cool to like the Panthers. It was cool to be associated with that team. And Cam was obviously a big part of that. He was the epitome of cool. And in many ways, it kind of still is. His style, the way he celebrates,

the way he has fun with the game, and the way he interacts with the fans. Even if you weren't in Charlotte, suddenly it felt like everybody kind of liked the Panthers. They were the cool team. They will remain the cool team for the next several seasons. Can let the Panthers to their best record in years by 2013 with a 12 and 4 finish. In 2014, they won their first playoff game in eight years. Only a few years as a pro, and Cam's game was mind-benting. He was a phenom the likes of which we hadn't seen in a long time, proof positive that this type of quarterback and this style of play could make it in the rigid NFL ecosystem. His 2015 season, though, that was Cam's true breakout.

The season we've all been expected from him since he came into the NFL, and he was smashing even those expectations. By November, the Panthers were still undefeated. They were blowing out the Tennessee Titans when Cam rushed in for a fourth quarter touchdown. He's literally dancing on the Titans, and Titans come up to, like, bro, don't dance. And then he dances on them some more. Like, you couldn't tell him a thing because he was on top of the world.

And honestly, he really was on top of the world. And Avery Williamson had had enough. It's a frustrating day for the Tennessee Titans and they feel like the celebration was excessive. Not everyone saw it as good, competitive fun. Like one Tennessee fan, Rosemary Plurin, was at the game with a young daughter. Florin wrote a letter published by the Charlotte Observer that read in part.

Dear Mr. Newton, we had a close-up view of your conduct in the fourth quarter, the chess puffs, the pelvic thrusts, and the in-your-face taunting of both the Tatins players and fans. Oh, we saw it all. You've an amazing talent and an incredible platform to be a role model. Unfortunately, what you modeled was egotism, arrogance, and poor sportsmanship. JJ, Jonathan Jones, found out the newspaper he was working for ran this letter. And he wasn't happy. It should have never ran.

There were no pelvic thrusts that Cam was doing with it. The dab does not involve a pelvic thrust. And you knew what this woman was saying. And you felt the racism. through it and I got emails from people backing her up it was always listen I'm not racist but if these things bothered Cam he didn't let on during the season the Panthers started 14 and oh and led the league in total touchdowns can put up 49 points against the Cardinals scoring the highest number of points in the history of an NFC championship game he finished

the season as MVP and offensive player of the year and led the Panthers to the Super Bowl. Cam was virtually untouchable, the king of the NFL heading into his coronation. It was an added bonus that he did it his way and didn't shrink from his role as a generation to find a figure in the pocket. At a press conference about a week before the Super Bowl, Cam was asked why he was such a lightning ride. Standing at the podium, you can almost see the mental gymnastics occurring in his head as he prepares to answer. I said it since day one. I'm an African-American quarterback that may scare a lot of people because they haven't seen nothing that they can compare me to. JJ was in the press gallery watching. Cam had said at the podium in Charlotte, I'm a black

quarterback that scares people. And we all understood what Cam meant. And what he meant was that not only am I a black quarterback, but I play the quarterback position so well as a black man. And the way that I carry myself while doing it makes people feel uncomfortable. And the black NFL viewing population in mass was like, thank you, Cam. Thank you so much for finally acknowledging it. Because we know that you've dealt with it and we know that you've internalized it and we've been out here trying to say it for you and you would however you want to take it rise above it not want to comment on it it not want to dignify it all those things and that's fine but he finally said it and he said it in such a profound way when I'm doing these radio hits and they're saying what they're saying and I'm

having to be the cam Newton defender and finally he said it and it's not just the black writer in Charlotte saying it you got cam it's coming out of a horse's mouth it was referring to At the time, Cam was one of the most visible black athletes in the country, in any sport. He'd become the black quarterback of the modern era, dancing as we do, laughing as we do, embracing so many of the avenues of black culture and staying unapologetically himself. It made it impossible not to cheer him on. You see, to America, he was Superman. But to me, he was ours.

Our quarterback, our tireless champion, our magical Black Panther. But his moment of candor proved to be fleeting. Just six days later, Reluctance returned. I don't even want to touch on the topic of black quarterback because I think this game is bigger than black, white, or even green. So I think we limit ourselves when we just, label ourselves, just black, this, that, and the third. I wanted to bring awareness because of that.

But, yeah, I don't think I should be labeled just a black quarterback because it's bigger things in this sport that needs to be accomplished. A few days later, Cam had one of the worst games of his career as the Panthers lost to the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl. The championship defeat was a crushing blow for Cam. As he arrived for his post-game press conference, disappointment was etched on his face. They just played better than us.

I don't know what you want me to say. Cam's face peeks out of the shadow with his black hoodie. His arms are folded. His chin rests on his chest. He looks up only to respond to reporters with as few syllables as possible. The man standing at the podium is not the joyful quarterback who dances after touchdowns and reveals an S on his chest. Instead, it's the sore loser we saw a blend, the aloof talent we saw at Florida, quiet, brooding, absent.

Can you put in the words to disappointment you feel right now? We lost. After just two minutes and 30 seconds at the press conference, Cam says I'm done, gets up, and exes the room. The rebuke from his critics about his post-Super Bowl reaction was swift and unrelenting. On NFL network, Hall of Famer Dion Sanders berated Cam. Cam received NFL MVP. Do you understand what that means? You're the most valuable player, the most valuable person, the most valuable individual that we have in our league.

You are the face of our brand right now. Now, you can't do that. That's true. I understand the emotions of losing, but you can't do that. A Manning, a Brady, all these guys that has been the prototypical type of quarterback in our game. They're not going to do that. With Drew Breeze ever? Cam's always had difficulty high in his emotions.

It's built into how he plays the game. When he succeeds, striding. triumphant. He want everybody to know. When he fails, he withdraws. He's sullen. It's a natural reaction. Who couldn't relate to how Cam was feeling? I wondered how much of this was motivated by race. So I asked JJ if Cam would be treated the same way if he was a white quarterback. No. He would not have been critiqued the same way. He's wearing a black hoodie. He has this awful sour look on his face. The body language is terrible. It's not just simply he's black, but it is also simply that he's black. The criticism would not have reached the fever pitch

that it had if he were white. That summer, Cam gave an interview to GQ magazine. He was cautious and guarded. When he was asked about his pre-Super Bowl comments about black quarterbacks, He said he didn't feel as though race was a contributing factor and the criticism leveled against him. Cam said, I don't want this to be about race, because it's not. It's not.

Like, we're beyond that as a nation. These comments were jarring. But they began to make sense when JJ, who had left the observer to Joint Sports Illustrated, wrote a story detailing how the Panthers retained Frank Luntz, a political tactician who was consulted with Republican groups on how to message issues to the public. After the Super Bowl,

one of Lentz's tasks was reportedly coaching Cam on how to frame discussions on race. And that, to me, is the explainer of how you go from January Cam Newton. I'm a black quarterback who scares a lot of people to a few months later, GQ and Cam all of a sudden saying that he's colorblind and has no idea about race and we've moved past it. Cam's camp denied Luntz was ever consulted. Regardless, it was clear, as Bermonti Jones points out,

that Cam didn't want to talk about race anymore. That dude just wanted to get away from it. That dude did not want to be that person, and I think that they're legitimate questions to be asked about whether or not we should force people into this. Maybe this dude is not built for answering these questions that we're asking him to answer, and the only reason we're asking him to answer

is not because of anything we think about his mind, but entirely because of what we think about his body. And so Cam was trying to get to a place of simply not having to say them. And that's hard to do. White people are going to be trying to make you talk about it. Black people really want you to talk about it because you're the person that maybe, maybe just maybe they'll listen to. But we have to remember what Cam said he wanted to be, an entertainer and an icon.

It's just that this is the moment we realized that maybe Cam himself misunderstood with the second part of that claim. meant or would mean to people. You see, being an icon in his profession and in his community carries with it certain expectations. In the summer of 2016, two black men, all in Sterling, Louisiana, and Philando Castilla, Minnesota were brutally killed by police officers in two separate incidents. The horror was captured on camera. By August, football players, most notably Colin Kaepernick, began protesting the injustice and inequality

faced by black Americans. LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, and Dwayne Wade stood on stage the espies and used the platform as a call to action. A period of social activation by athletes decrying systemic racism was on the rise.

And Cam? Well, in a sit-down with ESPN's Trey Wingo, Cam was asked what he thought about Kaepernick taking a knee during the Star-Spangled Banner to protest racism and police brutality. Here's what he said. What I can't, you know, fathom is how does one-eighth of an inch something so small be the difference in such a big commodity in our whole lifetime? And that's the thickness of our skin, one-eighth of an inch.

And under that, we're all this. color, you know, and that's the big picture. You know, a lot of scrutiny happens when the athletes start talking about, you know, race. But the truth of the matter is we just got to do right by each other, no matter what color you are. The thought, at least from those covering him at the time, was that Cam was trying to keep from polarizing his fan base by towing a line between acknowledging the importance of Kaepernick's protests, while distancing himself from participating in it. It wasn't an uncommon practice, to be fair. Plenty of players are putting their money before protests.

And why shouldn't they? It shouldn't be up to black players to cure racism in this country anyway. Black athletes have often been positioned as the moral scoreboard in America's crawl toward equality. The prominence in their profession, the very existence as visible members in society, implicates them in any conversation about race. while the same is not expected of their white counterparts. It put an unfair burden on Cam.

He is the black quarterback of the moment. The notion of the black quarterback remains provocative. And so we're going to ask him these things. This is something that only black people are expected to deal with. I am much more angry and offended that nobody asks white people about this stuff. Because who you think could have more of an effect in a circumstance like that? Cam Newton and Tom Brady. Tom Brady could.

And nobody expects Tom Brady to do this. this. And so I understand from black people's perspective, all we got is us, and we're the only ones that can get it done. And so we need somebody like Cam Newton in this position. I am of the position that the people that got real power in the society of white people, they're the ones who can make it work, and we need to be leaning on them a little bit tougher to do something about this, because white folks listen to other white folks in a way that they simply do not listen to us. And so since we ain't got no weight over white people, we put all that weight on certain black people. And with Cam, because he was such a Superman-type figure as a player

and he was so brash and he was so outspoken and he didn't care what people thought in that way, I 100% get why somebody will come up and be like, oh, so now you care what they think? You don't care what they think when you say in first down, but now all of a sudden you care what they think. But that doesn't absolve Cam from the impact of his words. JJ couldn't defend Cam once he said

the color of our skin doesn't matter. For me, personally, it was deflating as a black man who covered him who did have to, to defend him as another black man to hear him say these things. It's this idea of, I don't see why race divides us. Well, yeah, I mean, it shouldn't divide us, right? In the grand scheme of things, we are all humans and it shouldn't divide us. The fact is it does divide us.

So it is futile to come out here and say, gosh, why does a little color matter? Well, it does matter, Cam, and it's always mattered. And you knew that it mattered eight months ago, and you said that it mattered. and all the criticism that you've taken, and some of it was your own fault. But so much of it wasn't, and so much of it was because people didn't like you because you looked the way you did and you were successful,

and you were young and rich and black, and you told them every single time you scored a touchdown that you were young and rich and black. And they hated that. So why don't you understand? Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers came to town on September 18th that year. two black quarterbacks with two entirely different approaches to a national conversation about racism. An image of the two quarterbacks greeting each other in the field went viral.

Newton addresses Kaepernick while Kat meets Cam with a severe, some might say, disapproving stare. After the game, Cam later said there was no ill will. But the picture symbolized the distance between the two. Kaepernick became the freedom fighting, but Cam still refused to take a stand. On September 20th, two days after Kaepernick left town, Keith Lamont Scott, a 43-year-old black man in Charlotte resident, was killed by police outside of his home.

Officers arrived at Scott's apartment complex to search for another man with an outstanding warrant. According to police, Scott was holding a handgun as he left his vehicle and didn't comply with their orders. Dash cam evidence, body cam footage, and cell phone video from Scott's wife showed otherwise. Police approached Scott's vehicle from the rear, and as he exited the car and walked backwards with his hands at his side, officers opened fire, killing Scott. The officer who killed him was placed on leave and never got charged. In response, Charlotte residents erupted in protests that were so disruptive, both city officials and the NFL,

consider moving the Panthers upcoming home game. That week, Cam addressed Scott's killing. It's embarrassing, you know, for things to just keep happening. You know, my big thing is always holding people accountable. You know, no matter what the race is, no matter what the gender is, no matter what the age is, we all have to hold each other accountable. And that's where we live in it. I'm an African-American, you know, I am not happy.

what or how the justice have been, you know, kind of dealt with over the years, you know, the state of oppression in our community. But we also, as black people, have to do right by ourselves. You know, we can't be hypocrites. A few feet from Cam was JJ, trying to take it all in. So you have Cam again preaching this unity gospel as if the burden is on black people to unify.

And so the message was not going, I felt to the right place. I don't know that Cam was going to be as eloquent or loquacious on a very difficult topic that he was not well read on, that he was not speaking with people in the community about, that he had not critically thought about. And so that he had to go up there and say something and tried his best to toe the line. I thought that he came out of that as best he could because I think we were all sort of cringing, wondering, is he going to go back to GQ Cam? That week, I flew to Charlotte to cover the protests.

So many people, black people, were filled with unimaginable pain those nights, traversing Charlotte's uptown roads for answers. I witnessed the tear gas. In despair, many black citizens fell deeply about the racism and police brutality in their city. To watch and walk with them was heartbreak. Many wore turquoise and black number one jerseys, fists raised in defiance.

People I spoke with were frustrated, angry, that prominent black voices in Charlotte, like Cam's, were not speaking out in support of their efforts. I think for a while people had given Cam Newton to the benefit of the doubt, even in some of the comments that he made, because he's the likable and lovable guy. That's Eddie Thomas. He's an assistant public defender in Charlotte. in Charlotte. Eddie respected Cam, just like so many other Charlotte residents.

He loved the way Cam played like the black quarterbacks he used to watch growing up. Eddie also admire what Cam did in the city through his various foundations for kids, for the poor. But where was Cam now? If you're going to receive all the love and praise from the community, if they've been there with you when you're going through difficult times, you need to be there for them when they're going through difficult times. And I don't want to say black people in Charlotte felt abandoned my camp,

but we did notice that he wasn't there in that difficult moment. And people started to really start a question like, what is this guy really about? And it wasn't, you didn't want to question too loud because, again, that's our guy. But behind the scenes, people started to say, all right, what's going on with Cam Newton? But one Sunday in September, the Charlotte Uprising collided with the football world in a way that made it impossible for Camder being hidden from the public eye. The Minnesota Vikings traveled to Charlotte to play the Panthers at Bank of America Stadium

in the midst of protest throughout the city. And the people who were outside the stadium protesting, the old heads and mothers, the teens and brothers, they wanted someone with a significant platform to highlight their hurt. Your approach by law enforcement, those backpacks are subject to search. Our overall objective here is to ensure the safeguard of everyone here attending the game. Thank you for your cooperation. I showed up to the protests outside the game early to bear witness as the scene unfolded.

A strange dissonance hung in the air. People were either responding to the chaos in Charlotte or pretending the pain didn't exist. It was calm next to crisis. pulled into the stadium amidst all this madness. Families jogged past military-grade vehicles, dads, pounded beers, and other fans snapped selfies and applauded nearby officers. And at that game, they had more security, more police than I've probably ever seen in my life, lined up, ready, because they didn't know what actually was going to happen.

That's Cass Otley, an activist who was at the stadium that day. I saw them gearing up because I got out there early. And they were on side streets, and they had these big mobile units. And they were out with all their gear, putting on all their stuff. And they were lined up arm in arm, like for the whole street. And I was just like, wow. You know what I'm saying? Like, this looks like this is going to be really intense.

By 10 a.m., cops outfitted in riot gear patrol to outer edges of Bank of America Stadium, attempting to keep the peace. church congregations were rumored to be skipping Sunday service. Folks were scared to be around. The game, the city, everything, all the noise. And it was just very intimidating. It was very intimidating. At a certain point, it was almost like a standoff.

We were like face to face. You know, and some of the protesters were engaging with some of the officers. It was a little back and forth. You really knew what was important to Charlotte at that point. And it was that stadium, that game, and those players, point-blank period, because they called officers from all over to be out here to protect that stadium.

The National Guard came a little bit later in the week, but the SWAT and all the AKs and different guns I had seen since day one of the shooting, night one of the shooting. But the way that was being used now was to protect the white people from the angry black people. It was about protecting white people. right to go to that game.

People like Cass and Eddie were hoping for some kind of statement from Cam, something to show that he was standing with him. I think it's one of the most difficult weeks of my life. A lot of pain and hurt in the community from the Keith Lamont Scott shooting, but also what had been going on for some time here in Charlotte. I was looking forward to what he would say in that moment after the game, at the culmination of a very difficult week. for the city.

Inside the stadium, Cam wore a shirt to pregame with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. reading, and Justice Anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. I don't think it was what they were hoping for. I think he took the easy way out, the MLK quote. There's parts of me that certainly I understand the position that he was in, but I wanted him to say something. I wanted him to do something that would help a hurt. community and the fact that he didn't.

It's very, very disappointing. That doesn't lessen the feeling of loneliness that protesters had at the turf. To many Panthers fans, Cam's public comments and his apathy during Charlotte's uprising were a stark reminder of who Cam was. Or more importantly, as season ticket holder, Gibral Huff told me, who Cam wasn't.

He's not Superman. He's human. Cam was once the living incarnation of black pride, culture, and charactering the gridiron, tossing touchdowns, and smiling for the world to see. But that method ended. Our superhero is capeless, grounded. And honestly, I don't know if he'll ever take flight again. Next time on the Cam Chronicles. This man's been beat up, a lot more than most. QBs and we can talk about because he's a big strong black quarterback and what

that means as far as how people you know approach his not fragility but his the physical toll he can take it's actually pretty unsettling when you think about what the Carolina Panthers may look like without Cam Newton he's been a big fish in a small pond you know I'm in a position now man where I'm comfortable in my skin I don't try to be nothing that I'm not and I'm fine with that. The Cam Chronicles was written and reported by me, Tyler Artax, and edited by Connor Nevins. The show was produced by Kara Cornyhaven, Isaac Lee, and Noah Malale and sound designed by Isaac Lee. If you're listening to this episode and don't want to wait till next week

to hear where the story goes, head over to Spotify. All episodes of the Cam Chronicles are available for you to binge for free right now in the Ringer NFL show feed.