I'm not interested in Geno Smith, who is a marginal NFL QB destined to be out of the league in three years, tops. I do find IK Enemkpali interesting, though. He's an even more marginal player than Smith, but he was due to make $529,670 if he made the active roster this year. (He's a back-up linebacker.) Apparently Smith had agreed to attend a football camp in Texas that Enemkpali was involved with. Smith cancelled due to a family medical situation. Enemkpali wanted to be reimbursed for a $600 plane ticket and a limo that had been rented to pick Smith up from the airport. Smith was apparently late in paying, and taunted Enemkpali about the situation. So Enemkpali sucker punched Smith and broke his jaw. Enemkpali threw away over half a million dollars over one grand. Not very smart. (Sucker punching the starting QB will almost always get you cut from the team. I imagine Ray Lewis could have done this to Trent Dilfer back in the day, but then Ray Lewis got away with murder with the Ravens.)
But then, he hasn't been terribly smart anyway. In 2011 he got arrested for battery on a police officer. It is possible to do things that are more stupid than attacking a police officer - for example, intentionally breaking the jaw of the starting QB on your own football team. Bye-bye, dumbass.
The Cam Newton case also has its high points. Newton and a defensive back had been jawing at each other all camp long. On Monday, Newton took exception to the DB showing him up. (Namely, the DB intercepted one of Newton's passes and commenced jawing at the QB.) So Newton started a fight. Other than the fact that Newton is the franchise QB, this is unremarkable for training camp. Players get on each other's nerves, and extra-curricular violence occurs.
However, Newton IS the franchise QB. He's making beau-coup bucks* for the Panthers, having just signed a contract guaranteed to pay him $60,000,000 in coming years, and perhaps as much as $103,000,000. He's expected to not do this kind of thing. However, he did anyway. But what I found interesting were the following quotes Newton had after the scuffle:
SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) — Cam Newton is defending his role in a scuffle with Carolina Panthers' teammate Josh Norman that put the star quarterback at risk of unnecessarily getting injured.
Newton said Tuesday he would do it again.
"I have no regrets of things that I've done," Newton said. "It's been whispered about 'franchise quarterback doing this or doing that.' What's the blueprint of a franchise quarterback? Leading your team. I'm not going to let anyone dictate how I play."
It's rare to see a quarterback of Newton's stature instigating any type of contact, let alone starting a fight, at training camp.
But Newton contends he's not like most franchise quarterbacks.
"You've never seen a guy in a red jersey like me," Newton said. "You're not going to shape or form me into who you want me to be. I'm here for" my teammates. [emphasis added]In other words, Newton is bragging that he's too fucking stupid to listen to his coaches or learn from past mistakes.
It's pretty bad PR for black NFL QBs when you're looking for maturity from Jameis "Fuck Her Right in the Pussy" Winston and Michael "Dog Killer" Vick to make up for the other knuckleheads.
Update: I forgot one of the best parts of the Cam Newton story. His center came to his defense:
But center Ryan Kalil didn’t seem too concerned about the injury risk for Newton, who missed the first two games of his NFL career in 2014, one after cracking his ribs in an exhibition, another after crashing his truck in December.
“I don’t really worry about Cam. I’ve seen him to do a lot more dumb things than that,” Kalil said.Kalil tried to claim that he meant he had seen Newton doing stupid stuff playing a game called knockerball, but I suspect this was really a Kinsley Gaffe.
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