This was totally random, but as I was searching for the Joel Quenneville video for this article, I put his name into YouTube and here is what came up.
There are more than a few Quenneville videos of him losing his mind, acting like crazy person on the bench and at post game press conferences.
I want you to remember that when you read this story from David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune. The headline of his story is “Sorry, Joel Quenneville’s postgame act doesn’t measure up to Cam Newton’s”
By the time Quenneville reached the Blackhawks dressing room, comparisons to Panthers quarterback Cam Newton’s questionable post-Super Bowl behavior already had begun on social media. Sorry, tweeps in search of a hot take, the only thing the two episodes share is brevity.
Newton’s conduct Sunday at Levi’s Stadium during a three-minute exchange with a black hoodie pulled over his head revealed immaturity; Quenneville’s simply showed irritation. Newton’s sullen pout after the 24-10 defeat to the Broncos struck a stark contrast with his charismatic personality always so obvious in victory. Quenneville’s combustibility always has been part of his character and persona. Quenneville was being himself and, if Newton was too, then football fans from Charlotte to Santa Clara, Calif., don’t know him like they thought they did.
The public expected more from Newton because he embraced being the smiling new face of the NFL, and with that status comes responsibility. You can’t dab when things are good and disappear when they are bad. For professional athletes of Newton’s ilk, setting an example goes with the territory of being a leader for teammates and role model for fans. That involves acting like the same guy after wins and losses, a consistency in approach professionalism requires.
Say this for Quenneville: Marching off as he did was consistent with the gruff demeanor many in the hockey world associate with him. Nobody reacted with surprise to Quenneville’s video clip the way many did seeing a side of Newton they never had seen.
Now there is a lot wrong here, so I am just going to break it down point by point.
He talks about not giving a hot take, right before giving a hot take. Just by including Cam in this story he made it into a hot take and he knew exactly what he was doing from the start. He is trying to pull the Jedi mind trick on you.
“Black Hoodie” is a code word. No need for it to be included, means nothing to the actions that took place, it is place their to play on the stereotypes of black men. A Black man in a “Black Hoodie” is scary, ghetto, brooding to some of the white population (in some extreme cases can get you killed). It was including in the piece to essentially make it a white and black issue.
The young black man is “immature” when he is upset, the old white man is just “irritated”. More on that in a second.
Now, the part of the public expecting more from Cam is fair and likely true. He could have left it at that, but in the context of the post is what makes it so utterly ridiculously.
Right after saying that he defends Quenneville by saying he is consistently “gruff” which is another term to protect white people as opposed to calling him a jerk.
He also gets it 100% wrong in saying that this is a side we haven’t seen of Cam Newton before. Cam acts like this all the time when he loses, he has acknowledged this himself and anyone who has followed his career (this writer obviously hasn’t) knows this.
I want to circle back to the “immaturity” vs. “irritation” point that he made. Joel Quenneville is a 57-year old head coach and the writer essentially says he has been a jerk his entire life, so that is what makes it ok. But, Cam Newton who is 26-years old quarterback and 95% of the time is a very nice pleasurable person to be around, has a moment or two when he is IRRITATED, but is called immature.
I would expect a man who is old enough to be Cam’s father to handle himself in a more mature fashion, but excuses for white men are longer than Pippen’s arms.
I don’t know David Haugh, so I can’t speak about his personal character, but what I can speak to is that this is the white privilege media writing and reporting I see every day and it is sad.
The differences in Quenneville and Cam Newton just from a logical standpoint would suggest that Quenneville is the one who never grew up and is immature, while Cam was the one who was dealing with a sudden irritation that caused a reaction.
The circumstances of their walk-offs were totally different with Quenneville doing it in a regular season game after 27 seconds and Cam after losing the biggest game of his life and talking for a few minutes.
It is frustrating not just as a member of the media, but as a black man in general to see things so unfairly reported and slanted to just protect people who look like them.