Cam Newton is calling out perceived racial discrepancies in the way white athletes are allowed to transition to the broadcast booth.
While the former Carolina Panthers quarterback, 35, supported people like Tom Brady and Tony Romo for signing mega-profitable TV contracts, he questioned why the same opportunities aren’t being given to athletes of color, too.
“I’m always gonna tell Tom Brady, Tony Romo, Greg Olsen, Troy Aikman, Matt Ryan to go get the bag,” Newton said on his YouTube show 4th and 1. “What I am doing is saying, ‘How in the world are they the only ones that’s getting access to these types of contracts?’”
Brady, 46, signed a 10-year, $375 million contract with Fox Sports in May 2022. The seven-time Super Bowl champion will join play-by-play analyst Kevin Burkhardt as Fox’s top broadcasting duo when the NFL kicks off this fall.
“Because somebody told me, they say, ‘Well, you don’t get these contracts because you’re not polished yet,’” Newton continued. “What type of media training did Tony Romo have before he just popped up commentating on the game?”
Newton was quick to point out that Romo, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback who joined CBS Sports in 2017, does “a damn good job.”
A similar criticism about lack of training was raised by Newton against Brady, saying, “I ain’t never seen Tom Brady cover no…”
At that point, Newton’s cohost Omari Collins argued, “They could be doing some stuff behind the shadows, but they skipped the line of a lot of people.”
“That is my point,” Newton said. “How can we get other minorities to skip the line, too? Because we all know ball.”
During the episode, Newton also got blunt about his football future. While he said he wasn’t retired, he acknowledged the reality of the situation.
“I haven’t played football in four years,” Newton said. “Do I think somebody is going to take a chance on me now? No. That’s me being honest.”
Newton’s last action came in 2021 when he returned to the Panthers after one year in New England. He appeared in eight games and did not record a win in the five games he started.
As for behind-the-scenes training that Collins theorized about, Jason Kelce — who signed a deal in April to cohost ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown — has gushed about the experience of taking part in the NFL’s Broadcasting and Media Workshop.
“This is all new territory for me. I have even more respect for it now,” Kelce, 36, told the Associated Press in April 2023. “It’s very hard to do something live, reactive of stimulus that just happened and having something clever and meaningful to say.”
The media workshop is a three-day program in which players practiced calling games on radio and television, as well as spending time learning the ropes of being a studio analyst.
Kelce will begin his Monday Night Countdown duties at the start of the 2024 season this fall.
