Cam Newton harshly criticized for saying “it’s funny to hear a female talk about routes”

Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton created a controversy with his response to a question from Charlotte Observer Panthers’ beat writer Jourdan Rodrigue on Wednesday. Rodrigue asked about receiver Devin Funchess embracing the physicality of his routes, and if Newton enjoyed seeing him hit people. Newton said “It’s funny to hear a female talk about routes”, then further repeated “it’s funny” with a grin after a dead silence before then talking about Funchess a bit:

The full video is available here, with Rodrigue’s question starting around 6:40. Here’s the transcript of her question:

https://twitter.com/jaywillis/status/915686898990931968

Rodrigue took exception to Newton’s response on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/JourdanRodrigue/status/915682599326162945

And she received plenty of support from other female NFL writers and reporters:

Rodrigue also said she talked to Newton afterwards and “it was worse”:

https://twitter.com/JourdanRodrigue/status/915683363675090944

Others weighed in to criticize Newton:

https://twitter.com/BridgetABC11/status/915680458683363328

The thing about the Cam Newton comment is that women reporting on sports is not new, and hasn’t been for some time. Bizarre

— Opening Day Brandon (@BecomingBrandon) October 4, 2017

This is not a good look at all for Newton, and it brings up flashbacks of some of the spurious arguments against women in locker rooms that have been made over the years against reporters like Claire Smith. Rodrigue was doing her job and asked Newton a reasonable question. For him to be dismissive based on her gender is problematic, and it shows some of the issues women in sports media still have to contend with.

[Jonathan Jones on Twitter]