Sir Purr
Well-known member
- Mar 16, 2019
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Newton was inspired to start the program by the lack of diversity he experienced before college and that it made things difficult for him at times as a young adult.
“I was just worried about gummy bears and cartoons and Pokémon cards,” Newton said when asked if he had any thoughts about diversity when he was in middle school. He recounted how in the course of a discussion in a sociology class at Auburn, he realized he didn’t regularly live around ethnic diversity until the age of 17.
On the football field, that late start made an already tough task tougher still when he tried to command an NFL huddle for the first time at the age of 22.
“Growing up in Atlanta, I didn’t have any diversity as I grew up. But as I grew up, I realized how important diversity was,” Newton said. “I come into the NFL at 21, 22 years old, and I’m thrust into a position where quarterback is the unanimous leader – whether you want to be or not. At that particular point in my life, I wasn’t ready to be the face of a franchise, but I was forced to be – coming into a huddle where instead of like in high school or college where you’re all the same age, I’m 22 and Jordan Gross is like 34. Steve Smith is like 32.
“Everybody is looking at me, and I’m stuttering saying the plays. Everybody is looking at me like, ‘You better get it together. We’re trying to win yesterday.’ That pressure became overwhelming at times.”
But Newton learned to navigate it as an adult, and now he’s helping others much younger do much the same in the arena of life. Newton has become a fixture in Charlotte, living in a diverse part of uptown for the better part of eight years now. The area has grown economically thanks in part to the CBRA, and Newton has tried to help it grow together in other ways through events like his annual “Kicking It With Cam!” kickball tournament that will be held at Bank of America Stadium for the first time May 10.
“I’ve been here eight years now, seeing this city grow and get its own pulse, getting its own uniqueness about it. It’s one of the most, if not the most community-oriented city,” Newton said. “I love that.
“‘Kicking it with Cam’ is just another opportunity for me to open my arms to Charlotte just as Charlotte has opened her arms to me.”