“Dear Mr. Newton,

Congratulations on your win in Nashville today. Our team played well, but yours played better. Kudos to the Panthers organization.”

The first indication that Rosemary Plorin’s letter isn’t worth the kitty litter package wrapping it was printed on is in the first half of her second sentence. The Tennessee Titans did not play well. They lost 27 to 10. This is an ass kicking. The Carolina Panthers came to Tennessee and whooped the Titans’ collective tails.

10 words in, and Plorin has already established that she’s full of it.

That game happened to be my nine-year-old daughter’s first live NFL experience. She was surprised to see so many Panthers’ fans sitting in our section of the stadium; that doesn’t happen much at fourth grade football games. And she was excited we were near the end zone, so we would be close to the “action,” particularly in the second half.

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.”

Along with being full of shit, Plorin now exposes herself as a bad parent. Well, maybe not a bad parent. But a bad-adjacent parent.

To wit:

1. If a nine year old doesn’t realize that NFL football games are going to be different from fourth grade football games, that nine year old is stupid. Now, I’m not saying that Plorin’s child is actually stupid. I’m sure she’s a very bright girl. Just that she intentionally created this fabricated narrative, and that in this fabricated narrative, she is the mother of a stupid child.

2.  Anyone who is big enough of an NFL fan to buy expensive tickets and take their daughter to attend a game should be aware that seats close to the end zone are traditionally where the loudest, rowdiest, and craziest fans sit. Being surprised at the behavior of the fans there is like ordering a martini and being shocked it had gin. 

So either Plorin is an idiot with an idiot daughter, or her entire Pollyanna act is bull.

“I refuse to believe you don’t realize you are a role model. You are paid millions of dollars every week to play hard and be a leader. In the off season you’re expected to make appearances, support charities, and inspire young kids to pursue your sport and all sports. With everything the NFL has gone through in recent years, I’m confident they have advised that you are, by virtue of your position and career choice, a role model.

And because you are a role model, your behavior brought out like behavior in the stands. Some of the Panthers fans in our section began taunting the hometown fans. Many Titans fans booed you, a few offering instructive, but not necessarily family friendly, suggestions as to how you might change your behavior.”

Plorin’s first paragraph here is true. There’s no doubt that Cam Newton’s contract and position both within the organization and in the NFL in general has granted him role model status. And it seems like he’s accepted it.

Yet, Newton’s position is solely dependent on two factors: his production on the field, and his behavior off it. Professional football is a nasty and violent game played by giant men who make a living doing nasty and violent things to each other. When these men have had some success doing these things, some of them channel that violent energy into celebrating a success that is rare and fleeting. 

Anyway, that Newton’s celebration made Tennessee fans so upset that they began to cuss and swear at him is not his problem. The problem is that Plorin’s paragraph, where she asserts that Newton’s relatively innocuous act forced people to react violently, sounds eerily similar to what people in the sane speaking world refer to as “victim-blaming.” Although much different in scale, what she’s saying is really no different from “That’s scary Black man looked at me funny, so I had to shoot him.”

“My daughter sensed the change immediately – and 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.

I could tell she was still thinking about it as we boarded a shuttle back to our car. ‘I guess he doesn’t have kids or a Mom at home watching the game,’ she added.

Again, either Plorin is completely full of horseshit and wants us to believe her daughter is an idiot, or her daughter is legitimately an idiot. Either way, someone needs to call a child protective agency.

I don’t know about your family life Mr. Newton, but I think I’m safe in saying thousands of kids watch you every week. You have amazing talent and an incredible platform to be a role model for them. Unfortunately, what you modeled for them today was egotism, arrogance and poor sportsmanship.

Is that what your coaches and mentors modeled for you, Mr. Newton?

The letter ends with a maudlin and transparently racist appeal to Newton’s background, with an insincere ask at the end. Confirming that along with it being printed on kitty litter package wrapping, it was written with ink made from dried and distilled White Tears.