Why Politics & Sports Don't Mix

Why we should leave the two separated and use sports as a way to join together as a country.

Wednesday, Carolina Panthers Quarterback Cam Newton attended a press conference where he answered questions from local media personalities. Everything was going well and as planned until the Charlotte Observer Beat Writer Jourdan Rodrigue, who has been covering the Panthers since October of last year, asked a deep football question.

"I know you take a lot of pride in seeing your receivers play well. Devin Funchess has seemed to really embrace the physicality of his routes and getting those extra yards. Does that give you a little bit of enjoyment to see him kind of truck-sticking people out there?"

Newton's first reaction was to laugh, and he quickly responded, "It's funny to hear a female talk about routes. (Pause) It's funny."

Ever since that moment, the Sports Media world has blasted the Panther Quarterback for his "sexist" remarks. This is certainly not the first time Newton has found himself in a bind with the media after a press conference. After his Super Bowl L loss to Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos, he walked out of a press conference after appearing with what seemed to be a bad attitude, and refusing to fully answer questions. Newton was blasted then for being immature. Again, media personalities are being accusing him of the very same thing.

The NFL fan base is made up almost evenly between males and females. 55% of NFL fans are male, 45% are female, according to reuters.com. However, there is only one female referee and another female who is an assistant trainer currently working in the NFL. Both women are considered pioneers as being the first ladies to hold such jobs. So my question to you, do Newton's comments make sense?

Yes and no. Because of the lack of people having a knowledge of the game deep enough to even ask a question regarding routes, it's almost comical to hear a beat reporter for a local newspaper ask that question any way. One of the problems that we face currently in sports writing and sports news coverage in general is the lack of knowledge for the game that these "analysts" are reporting on. Sure, they know the stats and they can pick the result correctly in a lot of the games. But can they watch a play once and tell Bill Belechick that the running back is running an option route of the backfield, keying on the Will Linebacker, and where his other route option is?

Because of the deepness of the question, any football player could have laughed, and found it funny that any local newspaper beat writer, boy or girl included, had the knowledge deep enough to ask him a question like that. And it's not funny in a comedian telling an inappropriate joke kind of funny, it's funny in a surprise way, like somebody set you up a surprise party and thirty people just jumped up from behind couches, big leather chairs, and your mom and dad's bedroom. You laugh because it's your natural reaction, it was a surprise and a beautiful one.

Jourdan Rodrigue

To any football player, a reporter knowing what he or she is talking about is that kind of a surprise. However, Newton screwed this opportunity up by not ever answering the question. Hence the hate talk circulating the sports world.

Now the sad thing about this whole ordeal is how the NFL just threw Newton under the bus. NFL Spokesman Brian McCarthy told Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio that "The comments are just plain wrong and disrespectful to the exceptional female reporters and all journalists who cover our league."

Rodrigue pushed the incident further when she reported on twitter that she "sought Mr. Newton out as he left the locker room a few minutes later. He did not apologize for his comments."

Black Sports Online dug deep into Rodrigue and questioned the credibility of the reporter. She had referenced laughing at racist jokes in three tweets and even using the word "nigga" in the third tweet, all of this four years ago. Rodrigue quickly apologized.

Then the Panthers released a statement saying that Newton did "express regret for using those words."

Does this not sound like a made up, sit com, high school drama to anyone else? This whole ordeal has been stupid, and it's gotten the likes of millions of American's outraged that Cam Newton is a sexist pig, as is the majority of NFL Players. What?!

Let's face the facts. Sports and Politics don't mix together. Sports was our way out of politics, our way to avoid them. Then, last August, a benched quarterback sits during the National Anthem and sparks an outrage over patriotic displays in stadiums. Then, that quarterback explains later that his protest was in response to all of the abuse that police forces show toward black Americans. Colin Kaepernick started this entire wave of political opinons being displayed in the NFL. Thank you so very much, Mr. Kaepernick.

Anthem protests continued all through last season. Then, Seattle Seahawks Defensive End Michael Bennett stirred up outrage over his story about being on the wrong end of police brutality in Las Vegas, NV. He wrote a long statement and posted it on twitter, claiming he was accused of being a shooter in an live shooting situation after the Floyd Mayweather/Connor McGregor fight for simply being a black person in the wrong place at the wrong time. He sparked a national outrage as ESPN, FOX Sports, NBC Sports, CBS Sports and TMZ Sports covered the story along with every national news outlet. Four Weeks later, the Las Vegas Police proved that his entire statement was a complete lie.

This is the fault of the American media being such a cut throat occupation that everyone is jumping the gun with one goal in mind. Report it first, be the first to break the story. So all of these media personalities took Bennett's story word for word, without questioning anything about it, and didn't bother to think about the inconsistencies in his story, nor the facts of the matter. So we outraged the nation over nothing.

President Donald Trump weighed in on the anthem protests right before week three of the NFL season, saying that the "Sons of bitches" who won't stand during the national anthem should "be fired, get them out of here." Week three saw over two hundred players protest during the national anthem, approximately 12% of the league. NFL Ratings are lower then they have been in a very long time.

The answer to this is simple. Politics has become a draining subject on almost every American. It seems like every American party is fighting for a set of ideas, and are hellbent on seeing America working and operating in those ideals. All sides are convinced that they are the right side and that everyone else is wrong. That's what makes politics so draining. You can't talk politics with someone who disagrees with you because then it starts a long, drawn out argument. That is our American culture now.

Instead, politics has been dragged into a place where it truly doesn't belong. People turned on sports to watch athletes and hear about the latest big plays, not hear about the latest anthem protests or sexist comments from a quarterback. So why is the sports media covering all of this?

It's because there is too much media coverage in sports. We can't just talk the games coming up, the games that have been played, the plays and moves that were spectacular. No, these players stand on a national stage now, where we, the American People, have to know more about their personal lives then the tabloids do. Media networks like ESPN, NBC Sports and CBS Sports focus too much on the political issues instead of just sports. Then you're left with FOX Sports, and they don't want to be left out of the conversation.

All this comes down to is media networks just don't want to air their analysts all saying the same things and repeating themselves and each other all week, every week, for weeks. They just don't get the ratings that they want with that. This is drama, younger Americans are about drama, and it keeps the ratings where they want them to be... Sometimes.

So all it comes down to is that our biggest sports networks don't really understand why people watch sports. People turn on football on Sunday's to get together as a family and friends, as Americans, to watch a game that can distract them from the crisis' and issues we have in our country today. We watched football on Sunday to be blown away by the athlete's and their abilities that they have been training their entire lives to perform, not to be blown away by the actions of a Las Vegas shooter. We watch to laugh as fans when our team scores that game winning touchdown, not to scowl in anger at a player who stretches during the national anthem.

Sports is our escape from the insanity. Please, let us enjoy it, with passion, with fire, with friends and family, with love. Don't ruin this for us. Don't ruin this for America.