Cam Newton Finds it Funny when Women Talk about Routes
The idea of females in the sports industry has always been put on the shelf and on October 4, Cam Newton made it clear that women knowing about sports, particularly football is a joke.
Although some may say that Newton didn’t “mean it that way” it sure came off negative as he laughed in reporter Jourdan Rodrigue’s face after she asked a question about his teammate Devin Funchess’ fade route.
For those of you who don’t know, a fade route is when a receiver splits wide running at a defender and fading toward the corner of the end zone where a perfectly placed pass from the quarterback falls gently into his hands.
Some females will have no understanding of what this means, but for a women whose career is based off of the knowledge of the sport, the laugh from Newton was degrading her credentials.
With his charm and personality, it’s hard to hear the beloved quarterback make such a sexist remark without an apology afterward. According to The Observer article “Cam Newton’s sexist comment to Observer reporter wasn’t one bit funny”. Reporter Rodrigue went to address Newton after the conference only to hear him state “she wasn’t really seeing specific routes when watching the game, she was just seeing if somebody was open”. For a woman who has been a Carolina Panther beat writer for The Observer for two years, she did not find it “funny”.
Neither did a lot of other women in the sports industry. Candace Buckner a sports reporter for the Washington Post tweeted:
Along with her is Amy Lawrence, a host of the CBS Sports Radio’s After Hours with Amy Lawrence, tweeted:
Surprisingly people have not accepted the fact that women are knowledgeable in the game of sports. Even though women may never know how it feels to be a 2015 MVP football player, their opinion and knowledge on the sport is just like every male who sits on their couch Sunday, Monday, and Thursday nights screaming at the television and talking fantasy football. From Co-host like Jemele Hill to reporter Rebecca Harlow, women are now involved in the sports industry and taking the game by storm.