During the 2015 National Football League (NFL) season, Carolina Panthers’ starting quarterback Cam Newton faced immeasurable scrutiny for his actions both on-and-off the field. His notable antics included his celebrations on the field by dabbing and dancing in the end zone, tearing down a Green Bay Packers banner hung in the Panthers’ Bank of America Stadium, and being short with his responses during a postgame interview at Super Bowl 50 in which he walked out and prematurely finished his interview. Newton, a figure familiar to the public eye after winning the Heisman Trophy and taking his Auburn Tigers to the collegiate BCS National Championship in 2010, has played and started for the Carolina Panthers the past five years after being picked by them in the first-round (first overall) of the 2011 NFL Draft.

While some of his actions deserve a little scrutiny, several of his actions fell to the attention of critics citing racial stereotypes and peoples’ unwillingness to forgive his past sins. (Newton was arrested for accepting a stolen laptop nearly seven years ago at a junior college, and in 2010 faced an investigation into his recruitment in which his father may or may not have accepted money in exchange for Cam’s signature (Birdsong).) Thus, his critics actions have created a prejudicial bias over any of his future actions. Cam Newton’s skill and achievements throughout this season include: taking the Carolina Panthers to Super Bowl 50 after leading them to their first 9-0 start in franchise history and ending their season with their best record ever at 17-2; being named both the Offensive Player of the Year and MVP; achieving status as the only quarterback in NFL history to complete 100 plus touchdown passes (117) and 25 plus rushing touchdowns (43) in his first five seasons; first player in league history to complete at least 30 passing touchdowns and 10 rushing touchdowns in a single season; and, completed his fifth season in the NFL with career-high stats – 35 touchdown passes, 3,837 passing yards, 636 rushing yards, and a 99.4 passer rating (Henson; Panthers Roster: Cam Newton). Despite all of these accomplishments, however, the media and other critics have decided that Newton’s actions are not suitable for a quarterback – someone that must forever be an upstanding leader amongst his peers, fans, and the general public of America.

To understand this issue fully, one must understand the above historical role of quarterback. Better yet, one must understand Cam Newton in his entirety. Connect those two together and one will learn the conflicting ideas America puts together in attempting to make Cam Newton conform into the ideal public persona. Meanwhile, he pushes against them to maintain his authenticity and individuality. “I said it since Day 1. 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. It’s funny, I get inspired; it makes me go out there and practice even harder,” he said during one of the press conferences leading up the Super Bowl 50 game. “It’s like, here I am, I’m doing exactly what I want to do, how I want to do it. When I look in the mirror, it’s me. Nobody changed me. Nobody made me act a certain type of way and I’m true to my roots. It feels great, but yet, people are going to say whatever they want to say. And if I’m in this world living for that person – ‘Oh, this person is going to say this, this person is going to say that’ – then I can’t look at myself and say I am Cam Newton, or I’m Cameron Newton to most people. Because I’m not, because I’m living for you” (Birdsong). Understanding these things will give reason to Newton’s actions and the defense of them by his team, fans, and even himself. And, then, one must familiarize themselves with the dance that has kept him in the spotlight beyond his team’s success and Super Bowl birth during the 2015 season.

          A quarterback generally exemplifies the characteristics of hegemonic masculinity in which acceptable and unacceptable behavior is dictated. Because a quarterback, stereotypically is considered to be a white “leader” to whom the responsibility of representing the face of the team and the organization falls upon. This ideology is what reinforces the ideas of what is acceptable. It reinforces the authority of the white, straight, middle-class Americans in charge of determining what is acceptable (Hanna, “Week 6”). Little of this does Cam Newton fit.

………..To Continue Reading, Please Click Here.