What happens when Superman meets Superman? Well, you get a whole lot more than a silly meme of them pointing at each other.
What happens is what went down on Wednesday’s episode of “The Big Podcast with Shaq” from Playmaker HQ, where NBA icon Shaquille O’Neal interviewed Carolina Panthers legend Cam Newton. Basketball’s Superman began by asking football’s Superman why things can sometimes get a bit too heated at his youth events.
“It’s the access,” replied Newton, who was recently involved in a brawl at a 7-on-7 tournament in Atlanta. “Access. Just to give you context, right—so anybody who knows me know I’m a product of my environment. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. What you saw was, those were grown men, those weren’t kids. So that narrative was familiar coaching, and it got chippy. For me, that’s not the first time that happens. And honestly, knowing my world, that probably won’t be the last.
“I think looking back at it, yeah. People see like, ‘Yeah, Cam standing on business. Yeah, Cam had bobby pins in his head.’ Those are all funny things, but when I look at it, it’s like, man, it coulda ugly . . . on both sides. ‘Cause I’m the type of person, when I feel triggered, I react. It’s not, ‘Come on Shaq, let’s go get ’em. Come on, let’s go.’ I’m not that person. You say something to me and I go, I don’t think, and that’s the issue. And that’s where my whole support was kind of caught off guard. We were talking, something was said and then it was like, ‘Hey, hey, where you going?’ I’m going to use the restroom.”
Newton is certainly no stranger to trash talk at these outings, especially from the kids. But this time, it was a pair of opposing coaches that he mixed it up with.
Newton continued.
“But that’s just how I rock and roll. You know what I’m saying? But I just have to be better and I want to use this as an example for athletes, entertainers, people of influence,” he added.
“You may want to be at In-N-Out Burger, you want to go to Chick-fil-A, you want to just go to a hookah lounge, you just want to hang out. Somebody going to say something triggering to you and it just takes one time, and ugly because I could be in jail, somebody filing a lawsuit.”
Fortunately for everyone involved, nothing of the sort came as a result of the incident.
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