QB Cam Newton
What are your thoughts about what happened last night in Charlotte?
“My heart mourns for that family, but I just don’t know enough information at this specific time. When it happened, I was here, and we’ve been here all day. So I hear what happened, but I just don’t know enough of the information.”
Is it something you’ll look to learn more about?
“Of course, no doubt. As a citizen of Charlotte, as a person who came here in 2011, my job — not necessarily my job, but one thing I want to bring is the passion to the Carolinas. From my community — the black community — as well was the white community, is just bring everybody unity and football gives me that opportunity. I really can’t comment on what happened yesterday. I just don’t know enough information.”
But you’re aware of the issue in general, so now that it’s hit this community, does that make it even more upsetting?
“It’s just something that we all have to be held accountable and when is enough, enough? We’re just hoping that the facts come out. One article said there was a book. Some article said there was a gun. And in another article, the police that did the shooting didn’t have his camera on him. In my sport and in my life, if I’m not held accountable there’s Derek Anderson, there’s Joe Webb. But what if people are dying? In some cases it’s innocents. In other cases it was a threat to the police officers. So who am I to stand up here and make a specific judgment? It could’ve happened, hell, in Atlanta. It could’ve happened in Los Angeles. It doesn’t matter. It’s embarrassing for things to just keep happening. From what I do know, we had an incident that happened in 2013 that had something to do with police, and it just went to jury and whatever. Got washed away in time. My big thing is always holding people accountable. No matter what the race is, no matter what the gender is, no matter what the age it, we all have to hold each other accountable.”
Will this cause you guys to think about joining in on the Colin Kaepernick protest?
“I don’t know. I can’t speak on that. My job, for me, is trying to control any and everything that I can put my hands on. I salute Colin Kaepernick for his stand, for what he stands for, but at the end of the day, I also can make a stand in my own right. That’s why I have a foundation and I’ve been trying to do any and everything to bring the city of Charlotte or wherever that I’m around and impact it in a positive way. I’m hoping that people see that and do the same thing.”
How can you use your platform to make your voice heard?
“I know that the place that I stand sometimes is a lose-lose. You say something in one sense, and everybody’s saying you’re a traitor. You say something in another sense and, ‘Oh, he’s just too real.’ And you can’t necessarily say that. So I’m in a position now where if I say something, it’s going to be critiqued, and if I don’t say something, ‘Oh you fake,’ or, ‘You flawed.’ I’m a firm believer of justice. I’m a firm believer of doing the right thing, and I can’t repeat it enough — of just holding people accountable. Numerous times I’ve said I’m an African-American. I am not happy how the justice has been dealt with over the years, the state of oppression in our community. But we also as black people have to do right by ourselves. We can’t be hypocrites. I say that on one voice but also on another voice that when you go public or when things happen in the community, it’s not the fact that things are happening. It’s the way they’re being treated after the happening. When you get a person that does some unjust things or killing an innocent person, killing fathers, killing people who have actual families, that’s real. Like I have son and a daughter I am responsible for. How would I be if one day they come home and it’s no more daddy? Ok, well you can get a settlement — money doesn’t matter in that sense. We just need people to be held accountable.”
How difficult is it that you want to say things but you can’t because of that lose-lose?
“It’s not that I can and I can’t. It’s just I’m always going to be true to who I am. I’ll always salute the people who stand for something and the people who represent holding themselves up to a standard. It doesn’t matter the race. I don’t see that through a black-white lens. I could look at you, and I could be around you, and I could tell if you’re a good person. There’s good people that don’t have a badge on. There’s good people that have a badge on. We all know people who are in the police department. We also know bad people that are civilians and that are police officers. That’s just life as a whole. All I’m saying is we all have to, as United States citizens, be accountable for what we do.”
Do you feel when you don’t speak up you’re more criticized by the black community?
“I wouldn’t say that. It’s just a lack of knowledge or how in some terms whether you may call it the athlete, whether you call it the entertainer — sometimes we get edited and cropped. People show what they want you to see in some cases, and that’s not necessarily how you feel. What are you left to do? You take the backlash because you do a 30-minute interview and they only show 20 seconds of your interview. But that’s been happening for years. I’m not just speaking for myself. I’m speaking for the masses of where that’s happened. But I’m always going to stay true to who I am. I go home and text my family as much as I can because this sport that I play requires so much of my time. And I’m just saying, if I put myself in that situation, I know how much I mean to the people that share my last name.”
Can you expand more on how the lose-lose proposition is frustrating?
“When you talk about race and you talk about this and when people stand up for a certain community. And whether I want to or not, there’s no denying, I’m a black person. I’m an African American. But when I stand for something that I know that I stand for and I’ve been growing up around all my life. And as soon as you say something that we still have to do right for blacks, that’s just, ‘Oh, well he’s this. He’s that.’ But also, yeah, the police brutality is embarrassing to even talk about. You sit up here and list the names, it’s crazy to even think about. How did this even happen? And how do police take a leave of absence, still getting paid? But also, when you look at the most dangerous cities in America: Atlanta, Birmingham, Chicago, Miami, Louisiana — I know from being a black person, there’s a lot of black people that don’t do right by black people. So you can’t be a hypocrite and just say, ‘Oh, a white man or a white police officer killed a black man.’ Now, that’s still messed up. I’m not sitting up here saying that’s OK. I’m just saying that we still have to have a clear-eyed vision on both sides. That starts with everybody holding each other accountable and policing yourselves. That’s all I’m saying.”
There’s been a sense that since Muhammad Ali passed away, athletes now feel more emboldened to have a political stance. Do you agree?
“You just have to know that as athletes, there’s so many people that live vicariously through you. When you look at a Steph Curry, when you look at a Michael Phelps, when you look at a Usain Bolt, a LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, myself — the list goes on with elite athletes, and I apologize if I’m missing superior athletes. But people get energized and rejuvenated by what they do. You can go anywhere and start a discussion. It may not be about politics, but you can talk about sports, and that’s the platform that we’re given. And when you’re given that type of platform, people are going to listen. It’s not about people using it in the wrong way or not having the opportunity to speak how they feel. We all have that platform. As regular civilians, we still have that platform because we touch so many people. Coach Gus Malzhan of Auburn used to tell me, ‘Use your influence in a positive way because people are looking at you regardless of the bad and the good.'”