Source: Kevin C. Cox / Getty
So about that sexist joke that Cam Newton made about a sports reporter…
Newton finally admitted that the joke was on him and apologized. He did so in a video posted on Twitter. He spoke about his two daughters and not wanting them to grow up in a world where they too could be the center of a joke similar to the one made by their father.
“What I did was extremely unacceptable. I’m a father to two beautiful daughters and, at their age, I try to instill in them that they can do and be anything that they want to be,” he said.
Newton also mentioned that he lost a sponsor because of his remarks. Dannon yogurt released Newton, but the one sponsor that we’ve yet to hear from— and possibly his most lucrative— is Under Armour. It is possible Newton’s apology comes as a result of his fear that he could lose more deals… but hopefully it was earnest.
In the video, Newton said, “If you are a person who took offense to what I said, I sincerely apologize.” The somewhat canned byte shows that he might not fully understand the extent to which his words offended women within, and outside of, sports journalism.
Though women are slowly becoming more accepted in sports media and becoming a mainstay for on-the-field coverage, unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for some to talk around women as they go back and forth about stats.
It also doesn’t help that the entire narrative was derailed once the reporter Newton offended was found to have used the N-word in unearthed tweets. Sexism doesn’t cancel out racism and vice versa. Both are wrong.
