“Black athletes could succeed in the white-dominated athletic world,” wrote John M. Carroll in his book about Pollard, “but only if they abided by an unwritten code of conduct both on and off the playing field.”
The code applies to all sports, to varying degrees. You can be black and prideful, but only to the extent that you’re willing to play the heel (Barry Bonds). You can be black and demonstrative, but only to the extent that you’re willing to play the clown (Chad Ochocinco). Your flaws as an athlete are racial traits, and your physical “gifts” are, too, and your success is a matter of how effectively you transcend your brute atavisms and embrace the prevailing “white” idioms of play (Donovan McNabb, Michael Vick, even Michael Jordan). You will be loved if you win often and win quietly and if all the while you hold yourself in such a way that you stand in exquisite contrast to the black athletes who lose too often or win too loudly (Kevin Durant, Joe Louis).
The code asserts itself like this: “Very disingenuous—has a fake smile, comes off as very scripted and has a selfish, me-first makeup.” Nolan Nawrocki’s infamous 2011 scouting report on Newton was no dog whistle. Subtler prose has been written on notes wrapped around bricks. “Always knows where the cameras are and plays to them. Has an enormous ego with a sense of entitlement that continually invites trouble and makes him believe he is above the law—does not command respect from teammates and always will struggle to win a locker room. … Lacks accountability, focus and trustworthiness—is not punctual, seeks shortcuts and sets a bad example. Immature and has had issues with authority. Not dependable.”
And it works like this: In a November game in Nashville, Tennessee, Newton salted away the Titans with a late touchdown on one of those trademark quarterback keepers wherein he seems not so much to run but to roll downhill, waving the football in one big hand the way Walter Payton used to. He celebrated by dancing in the end zone, prompting one “Tennessee mom” who’d attended with her 9-year-old daughter to write an oh-my-stars-and-garters letter to the Charlotte Observer. “Because of where we sat, we had a close up view of your conduct in the fourth quarter. The chest puffs. The pelvic thrusts. The arrogant struts and the ‘in your face’ taunting of both the Titans’ players and fans. We saw it all.” The letter continues:
My daughter … started asking questions. Won’t he get in trouble for doing that? Is he trying to make people mad? Do you think he knows he looks like a spoiled brat?
I didn’t have great answers for her, and honestly, in an effort to minimize your negative impact and what was otherwise a really fun day, I redirected her attention to the cheerleaders and mascot.
It would be hard to argue that the Tennessee mom captured the national mood. She came off more like a holdout in a culture war long since ended, an old soldier bustling out of a cave with fixed bayonet, blinking in a new day’s sun. So many people rushed to Newton’s defense that it became clear the whole second-act-of-Footloose argument over ecstatic celebration in sports had already been won, and that the scowling tight-asses had assumed the minority position. (Newton’s backup, a white guy named Derek Anderson, called the letter “flat-out racist.”)
After Newton’s gentle response to the note—he has a singular talent for retail politics—the Tennessee mom rowed back her initial sentiment. In an email to the Charlotte Observer’s Jonathan Jones, she wrote: “I am sorry I didn’t understand him better until this week. It is clear from his remarks that he recognizes his leadership role, both on and off the field, and that he truly cares about the kids watching him. I respect his comments just as much as he did mine, and I wish him nothing but continued success on the field and in life.” (Here we note that the Tennessee mom, a woman named Rosemary Plorin, is employed in the field of crisis communications.)
Nothing seems to stick—not for long, anyway. The code is typically never more austere than when applied to black quarterbacks, a signal-caller being the emissary of his coach’s will. But Newton keeps moving the chains.
http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2016/01/cam_newton_of_the_carolina_panthers_has_stretched_the_sports_world_s_racial.html
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