Cam Newton may have crossed a red line yet again.
Last week, the former NFL MVP did what very few hosts in sports media are willing to do these days, inviting ex-ESPN and Fox Sports commentator Jason Whitlock onto his podcast 4th and 1 to discuss their differences. And while the majority of the conversation focused on Whitlock’s regressive takes about Newton’s fashion and masculinity, Whitlock also saved some time for his favorite enemy in the industry: Stephen A. Smith.
Reinvigorating a nasty feud that went off the rails last spring, Whitlock accused Smith of lying about his background on several fronts. As a result, Smith saved a portion of his recorded response to Whitlock for Newton, whom he has in recent seasons made a regular contributor to First Take.
“If you’re gonna bring me up and you’re somebody that’s in my inner circle and you talk to me, grill them,” Smith said to Newton. “Don’t just let them talk smack.”
Smith also revealed he will be joining Newton’s YouTube show for an interview soon.
While we wait for that conversation, Newton and producer Omari “Peggy” Collins posted their own response to the backlash they received from Smith and others online for the Whitlock interview. In a 20-minute rebuttal, Newton insisted that he merely facilitated a conversation that Whitlock was already perpetuating on his own platforms — and that it is not up to him to fact check guests or filter content for his audience.
“You cannot allow people to come on your platform and you control how it goes. You only can allow them to speak their truth how they know their truth to be,” Newton said. “And if you don’t know, you can respectfully say, ‘I don’t know if this is true or not.’ So when Stephen A. says, ‘You didn’t hammer down on the question.’ I didn’t know that it was a lie.”
Collins personally took the blame for the idea of hosting Whitlock on 4th and 1.
Around the same time the video was posted to Newton’s YouTube channel, fellow First Take regular Ryan Clark added to the criticism toward Newton in a post on X.
“If someone shows you love, has you on “their” show twice a week… at least. You don’t bring his known enemy on your show and allow your guest to talk (sh*t) about person,” Clark wrote.
In his defense, Newton compared his decision to bring Whitlock on to Smith surprising Carmelo Anthony last year with a surprise diatribe against LeBron James on Anthony’s 7PM in Brooklyn podcast. Just as Whitlock took advantage of Newton to roast Smith, at that time, Smith took advantage of Anthony to air his grievances toward James.
Still, this perspective leaves out that Cam Newton had plenty to gain from the controversy that Whitlock inevitably brings. Newton acknowledged this in the video released Tuesday.
“Some would say, ‘Isn’t your relationship with Stephen A. Smith more beneficial or advantageous for you to not even render the opposition of Jason Whitlock the platform?” Newton quipped. “No. Because at the end of the day, I’ve gotta do what’s best for the platform. Nobody seen that coming. That’s why I did it.”
While Newton’s point that bad actors like Whitlock all have access to a platform these days whether a popular host grants them one or not, Newton almost insults his own reach by minimizing the Whitlock booking. The difference between Whitlock shouting into the void on Blaze TV and YouTube and Newton giving him the megaphone of mainstream attention is clear in the response to the interview itself. Which is to say that Newton knew what he was doing and did it on purpose.
It is hard to tell how hurt Smith’s feelings truly were given that he also complimented the interview. But while ESPN-on-ESPN crime is no longer the red line in and of itself that it once was, Cam Newton is biting the hand that feeds him.
For now, the former Carolina Panthers quarterback seems content to milk this controversy for more content:
“I’m going to always give a person, an individual, just like Stephen A. Smith, you’re more than welcome to come up on this platform and speak your truth,” he said. “I render the same kind of sentiment [to everyone].”