Warren Moon is tired of the criticism Cam Newton has faced over the last several years, and the Hall of Fame quarterback has a very graphic way of expressing his emotions on the topic.
Moon, who has been a mentor to Newton for a long time, recently spoke to Mike Garafolo of FOX Sports about the way Newton is perceived. Moon acknowledged that Newton was arrested for allegedly stealing a laptop at Florida and then involved in a pay-for-play scandal at Auburn, but he doesn’t understand why critics can’t let the past be the past.
“That’s the thing I don’t understand. How come they just can’t let it go?” he asked. “If he hasn’t done anything (recently) that’s been against the law or anything that would cause negative publicity, isn’t out in the world doing something wrong except for just dancing after a touchdown, I mean what is the big deal? He’s worked toward maturity in the last five or six years he’s been in the league and has done positive things to erase a lot of that negative stuff from when he was 18, 19 years old. I just don’t know why people can’t let all of that stuff go.”
Moon said he also believes some of the criticism is racially-motivated, while other traditionalists don’t like that Newton is different from many NFL quarterbacks before him. Moon then made a somewhat disturbing analogy.
“You’d think he raped like five pastors’ daughters over the last five years and he’s getting away with it the way people are talking about him,” he said.
I don’t know if I’d go that far, but you can certainly understand the frustration. Newton recently made some of his strongest comments to date about the way the public views him, so he probably feels the same way Moon does.
One thing is for certain — Newton has quickly become one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. No skin color or end zone dance is going to change that anytime soon.
