As most of you already know, former Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton was involved in an altercation at the We Ball Sports 7-on-7 invitation-only event in Atlanta this past weekend.
The former NFL MVP was seen fighting with men at the event.
The men involved in the scuffle went on to a radio show to address the situation and even released a statement apologizing for their actions.
The coaches with TopShelf Performance even released a statement following the incident, saying violence "has no place in our community, and we strongly condemn any form of aggression."
"That should've never happened," one coach said during the interview. "We should've been able to sit down and talk."
The coaches go on to say that Cam began the altercation with trash talk and grabbing one of the men. I'm not saying it's true. I'm not saying it's false. I'm saying that's not what we saw on the video.
Now, the details of what happened in the fight aren't what I'm going to address today because everybody's already heard the "Why would you attack a 6'5", 250-pound man who was a former professional athlete" take. It's all over Instagram and Facebook. It's all over TikTok. Google it. Etc.
What I do want to discuss is what message does that send to the players and the youth who saw or even heard about this incident. Now, I've never played organized football, but I've covered my share of teams at the high school and college levels and the one message that has been preached to players year in and year out is about battling adversity.
If you go back to the clip, one coach said there was a lot of trash talk between Cam's side and his group. I get it. Trash talk is part of the game, but when adults can't show the players that a heated battle can stay between the lines, they've failed. It's hard to teach children how to deal with adversity and how to maintain good character when you can't show you're capable of doing that (and I'm speaking about both sides).
To have this happen at an event like this is unfortunate, especially when the event was invite-only. Now, because of this, you put these players in a position not to be able to compete here again. Sure, there are several other 7-on-7 events across the country, but word travels fast in this era (as evidence of how quickly we got fight footage). TopShelf could be denied from other events because of this, which means their players may not get additional opportunities to get better or to be seen by scouts.
Regardless of how it started, what we'll remember more than anything is how it ended.
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