"Entertainer and icon" tweet. Did Peter King kind of misrepresent Cam Newton?

Double Down · Feb 28, 2011

Sure seems that way, even if Peter doesn't see it like that. Another victory for Twitter, I guess.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/02/28/combine/1.html

I really don't think context is the issue, but you asked for it, so here it is. A few of you, some angrily, have asked for the story behind the tweet that launched a thousand reactions the other day -- this stand-alone quote from Cam Newton: "I see myself not only as a football player, but an entertainer and icon.''

I'll explain.

A publicist for Under Armour, the outfitter that signed Newton to an endorsement contract, called me to say the company had Newton available to speak to four members of the media for 15 minutes each. Since I was going to write about Newton at the combine (I didn't know what exactly, and I didn't know if it would be for the magazine or for this column), I said yes. And so I spent 15 minutes on the phone with Newton Tuesday.

I was first in the batting order; I assume three others followed me for 15 minutes each. Newton talked about his work with quarterback coach Whitfield and his combine preparation, some of which I detailed above. After about 12 or 13 minutes, I asked him about his deal with Under Armour; I don't remember my exact question, but it was something about what he expected the deal to do for him. And he said one of the things he wanted to stress was that he saw himself not only as a football player, but also an entertainer and icon.

I had thought all along that I wouldn't use anything from our conversation until this week, after I had seen him at the combine and, hopefully, got to spend a little more time with him. When we got off the phone, I began to think about what he'd said. I knew it would be something that would raise eyebrows among NFL teams, who like their prospects to be single-minded, not entering the league thinking about anything except being the best player they can be. I thought if anyone else in the lineup asked him about the Under Armour deal, he'd probably say the same "entertainer and icon'' thing. I didn't want to make a news story out of it, but I did want to get it out that he'd told me this, so I sent it out to my 510,000 followers on Twitter.

Reaction was swift, and negative. One of his representatives called the next day to tell me, basically, that I'd sabotaged Newton just before the combine, and it was going to damage him, and if I'd written this as part of a larger story with context, no one would have seen the quote as very troublesome. I told him you're kidding yourself; if this were in a long story about combine prep and the deal with Under Armour, the media at large would have plucked out the quote and run with it the exact same way. And teams would have wondered about Newton's commitment to the game. How does the context of the quote change the impact? To me, not at all.

Did any of Newton's reps -- agent Bus Cook or his marketing people or father -- say to him, "That's a bad thing to say at any point of a young career, never mind just before the combine?'' I certainly hope so, or they don't have his best interests at heart. I found Newton to be an amiable enough person, though how much can you really tell by a 15-minute phone conversation? And I was encouraged by a couple of things at the combine.

One: He never said the quote wasn't accurate; I've heard enough players, with me and other reporters, backtrack out of a bad situation by saying they were victimized by an invented quote. Two: Combine godfather Gil Brandt of the NFL told me he spent time with Newton in Indianapolis and the player said he'd put his foot in his mouth and planned to apologize for it to the press and to teams. He pretty much did that to the assembled press, though he said several times he felt he was misunderstood.

On NFL Network Sunday, Newton said of our conversation: "My response was, I view myself as that due to the fact that I'm not only going to just be selling football cleats, I'm going to be selling lifestyle apparel -- everything else ... I could have picked way more [different] words to express what I really wanted to say. I want to personally apologize to everybody who was offended about it."

As I wrote higher in this column, I definitely wouldn't eliminate Newton as a possible high pick because of one sentence. He's had a checkered past, obviously, and this doesn't help. As I write in SI this coming week, teams are going to do lots of homework on Newton to make sure they're comfortable with him as a player and person and comfortable with his desire to make football the highest priority in his life. He's such a great prospect, with charisma to match, that I expect him to get picked very high, as high as number one, to Carolina. But teams have miles to go before they can say with certainty they're comfortable with building their team around him.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/02/28/combine/index.html#ixzz1FH2hzJU2
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LongTimeListener · Feb 28, 2011

Actually it seems like Cam Newton said something really stupid and he has managers and agents trying to double-talk their way out of it on his behalf. He'll fit in perfectly in the NFL.

Double Down · Feb 28, 2011

It's easy to shit on Cam Newton, who even I think is kind of an idiot. He's an easy target.

But the context mattered there. It's a little bit unfair to ask a guy about his endorsement deal, then offer up that one quote without the context, and have it make him look like he's the kind of dumbass who would have Master P negotiate his first contract.

Mizzougrad96 · Feb 28, 2011

I think Newton just spewed back something Under Armour had said to him.

He was still stupid to say it.

Double Down · Feb 28, 2011

Mizzougrad96 said:

I think Newton just spewed back something Under Armour had said to him.

He was still stupid to say it.
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It was clearly not wise. But shouldn't King have put it into context? Even with multiple tweets? Kind of unfair to pretend like he mouthed off in that interview without the set-up. Even if the quote does get cherry-picked and viewed in whichever way people want to see it, I think it's still King's responsibility to convey what he was talking about when he said what he did. Which he didn't do until a week later.

Azrael · Feb 28, 2011

Has any "skill" player since, say, 1990 gone into the league in the first round who did not in his heart of hearts believe exactly the same thing?

The problem here isn't King or Newton, it's the NFL, and the fiction that it's still 1950. The NFL sells high-flying entertainment. Why it thinks it has to repackage spectacle as working-class morality is the real mystery here.

The Big Ragu · Feb 28, 2011

Let's put this into context. Under Armour put him on the phone to sell crap with a trendy logo on it. So this wasn't a case of an aw shucks kid getting twisted in circles by a reporter who snuck up on him. Under Armour is paying him more than $1 million dollars to be the face of the crap with the trendy logo. Newton has been all too happy to cash in as much as he can all along his ride from high school to college to now -- and no, I don't fault him. But he doesn't get to have it both ways. When he stuck himself into the Big Boy world -- and this is when he was for sale to colleges, not just when he signed a big endorsement deal recently -- he forfeited the right to call mulligans and claim he's a gullible, unsophisticated kid. He wants to be Cam Newton, Inc. Great. Then handle your business. And when you put yourself on the phone with an SI reporter right before the combine and you say that -- in a call arranged by Under Armour -- maybe it kind of really does represent where your head is.

Guy_Incognito · Feb 28, 2011

I don't think he did it on purpose, but King should have given more context, and Newton was damaged because of his mistake.

The Big Ragu · Feb 28, 2011

I am really missing something here.

What exactly is the "context" that mitigates it?

MMQB that week:
"So I got 15 minutes on the phone with Cam Newton. It was arranged by Under Amour, who after signing him to a $1 million dollar + endorsement deal, was trying to ply a little PR out of him before the combine. I normally would have just cared about how he was preparing for the combine, where he thinks he might end up, if he's worried about the labor situation; things like that. But since I was on the stopwatch, and Under Armour had arranged the call, I figured why not ask him about the endorsement deal? And he said he wanted to stress that he saw himself not only as a football player, but also as an entertainer and icon."

Does that clarify the remarks?

LongTimeListener · Feb 28, 2011

The Big Ragu said:

I am really missing something here.

What exactly is the "context" that mitigates it?

MMQB that week:
"So I got 15 minutes on the phone with Cam Newton. It was arranged by Under Amour, who after signing him to a $1 million dollar + endorsement deal, was trying to ply a little PR out of him before the combine. I normally would have just cared about how he was preparing for the combine, where he thinks he might end up, if he's worried about the labor situation; things like that. But since I was on the stopwatch, and Under Armour had arranged the call, I figured why not ask him about the endorsement deal? And he said he wanted to stress that he saw himself not only as a football player, but also as an entertainer and icon."

Does that clarify the remarks?
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Apparently we still have a lot of people on here who buy the Big Bad Media vs. Poor Innocent Kid garbage. Surprising on a board allegedly of people in the media biz.

Double Down · Feb 28, 2011

Oh go suck eggs, LTL.

King can still reveal Newton to be the jackass you clearly view him as AND put the quote in a context that's more fair.

NickMordo · Feb 28, 2011

MisterCreosote said:

LeBron James certainly seems dedicated to being a global icon and entertainer, but he's also a damn good basketball player. Why can't Cam Newton be both, too?

As for the original issue, this is why I stay away from Twitter. Way too easy to post something out of context, or in context that causes a big shitstorm, or something that's just flat-out wrong.
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The difference there is LeBron wasn't saying he wanted to be an icon when he was in high school; he at least waited until he reached the NBA and, you know, played for a franchise. Newton is jumping the gun at his potential popularity, even though he has already been vilified and will continue to be because of his college validity.

And Cam Newton is no LeBron James.

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"Entertainer and icon" tweet. Did Peter King kind of misrepresent Cam Newton?

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"Entertainer and icon" tweet. Did Peter King kind of misrepresent Cam Newton?

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