Jets receiver Brandon Marshall doesn’t really want his quarterback dancing, but he admits that he likes Cam Newton.
Marshall appeared on Comedy Central’s “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore” on Wednesday night, and he shared his thoughts on Newton and the new school of NFL quarterbacks.
“Listen, I don’t want my quarterback dancing,” Marshall said, via ESPN’s Rich Cimini. “I’m from the old school. I want my quarterback to get back in the huddle and lead us. But what we have to understand is, this is the new generation. This is what they’re doing next. They’re disruptive. They’re disrespectful. They don’t give a damn about anyone. And I kind of like it. I kind of like it.
“You’ve got to look at it, Odell Beckham Jr., and then you have Cam Newton, who I think is leading the way. Go back to when [Newton] was a rookie and he said, ‘Listen, I want to be an icon.’ If you want to be an icon, you can’t stay in the box. You have to get out of the box. You have to be disruptive.”
Marshall made it clear, however, that while he personally doesn’t love the idea of a dancing quarterback, he’s totally fine with Newton.
“He’s not getting arrested,” Marshall said. “He’s been great. He’s been a great voice for us, and he’s doing some amazing things. I love it. Keep doing it. Keep dancing.”
Marshall also said that he believes the controversy surrounding Newton is more generational than racial.
“When you look at it, it’s a generational thing,” Marshall said. “And I just stick to that. I don’t think it’s racial. I just think that there’s a box that we put our quarterbacks in, and we say, ‘This is how you’re supposed to be. This is how Peyton Manning did it, this is how Joe Montana did it, Tom Brady, so you do it the same way.'”
Newton said recently that there’s absolutely a racial component to some of the criticism he receives. Of course, Marshall has already helped relay Cam’s message to the masses this year, so I suppose he’d know how the quarterback is feeling.
