Cam Newton disappointed me

[Zaximus]

 Personally, dinner time is my time to relax in life, and it may be the same for Cam, so yeah I'd be annoyed if people did that to me as well.   It's one thing if he's at an event, or even walking down the street, but dinner is quiet time or when a celebrity is trying to spend time with their children.  I don't care how famous they are, or the fact "they accepted it when they became famous" those two times (and some others obviously) are off-limits.  

Let's put this into perspective too, it's not like he's in Charlotte during a regular week at a restaurant here.  He's in Cali, for Super Bowl week, with tons of people EVERYWHERE.

And we all have bad days.  Maybe he had a headache, or was tired, or nervous?  

[PantherPhann89]

It's crazy how people put expectations on others, and even place them on higher pedestals than their own....

[panthers34]

I completely understand your disappointment and I think a lot more people on here would too if we weren't in the Super Bowl or if they were in your situation. It would have been nice of Cam to just smile or say hello to you guys but I'm sure he's more worried about making you and the rest of his fans proud this Sunday 

[tiger7_88]

17 minutes ago, Mr Mojo Risin said:

just kind of disappointing when it involves children who don't understand what being a "celebrity" is

Helping children understand what a "celebrity" is and how one has no right to either their time or attention isn't a Cam problem.

Its a parent problem.

[Peppers90 NC]

8 hours ago, Keep Pounding said:

I understand that, but it's hard telling your young kids that, especially how much they see me praise Newton every Sunday for the last 5 years, 

this is a great opportunity for you to be a good parent by explaining to your kids that entertainers have personal lives and at times they might prefer to be left alone. I hope you didnt let your kids down on this one, but with the complaining you are doing, I am pretty sure you did.

[FootballMaestro]

1 minute ago, Peppers90 NC said:

this is a great opportunity for you to be a good parent by explaining to your kids that entertainers have personal lives and at times they might prefer to be left alone. I hope you didnt let your kids down on this one, but with the complaining you are doing, I am pretty sure you did.

Bingo.

He may be frustrated and disappointed, and ultimately never get over this.

However, if he really thinks about it after the hurt subsides, you gotta realize your own culpability, and explain to your child what the situation was, since proper judgment wasn't exercised to begin with.

[NanuqoftheNorth]

Not surprising that Cam is discouraging people from bothering him after another long day of dealing with the media circus.

Watching this SB media circus for an hour in the comfort of my own home is almost enough for me to permanently swear off contact with the human race.

[tiger7_88]

15 minutes ago, csx said:

Why do people expect the world to bow down to every child? There some concept that children deserve everything all the time.

Dude, we live in a world where parents are arrested for "child endangerment" for letting their kids walk alone to a park a quarter mile away from their house.

A world where children must be padded from head-to-toe to prevent them from even scraping their knee.

And a world where everyone gets a trophy (there are no winners) for "trying" so that no one's feelings get hurt.

[tiger7_88]

4 minutes ago, Peppers90 NC said:

this is a great opportunity for you to be a good parent by explaining to your kids that entertainers have personal lives and at times they might prefer to be left alone. I hope you didnt let your kids down on this one, but with the complaining you are doing, I am pretty sure you did.

I'm getting the definite vibe that, instead of a learning opportunity being presented to the kids, that they got the "its ok honey, some people are just assholes" from ol' Dad.

[Panthers_Lover]

8 hours ago, Keep Pounding said:

I understand that, but it's hard telling your young kids that, especially how much they see me praise Newton every Sunday for the last 5 years, 

It was a perfect teaching moment for you. Explaining to your children that celebrities are real people whose privacy and personal space should be respected. Telling them at these folks get hounded constantly, and the respectful thing to do is to give them space. If, as someone else said, they make a move to say hello or something, then you have a moment ... and you take it but don't exploit it. Don't take up bunches of time with photos of everybody, autographs, etc. Just say "hello" and "we support you" etc., and "THANK YOU." (And, as much as it pains me, it's a teaching moment in that you can explain to your children that some people, including celebrities, are just jerks and move on ... I'm NOT speaking on Cam in this instance ... just in general.)

[CarolinaSunday]

Cam is preparing for the biggest game of his life, something that could end up being a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (hopefully not, but you never know), and the success of which largely hangs on his shoulders. On top of that, he has had to be available and "on" since Sunday. I get irritated and exhausted when I have to entertain clients and be "on" for a a couple of hours. I can only imagine how exhausted he is by now. 

I understand your disappointment for yourself and for your daughters. But I think you need to understand Cam's perspective as well.

[Newtcase]

I would say the players have been instructed by their handlers to interact as little as possible when in public.  It's a media circus there and everyone has a phone, you say/do/react to a single thing wrong and suddenly you have a huge distraction sweeping the world media.  Why go through the annoyance of measuring every single word and action you take in public to make sure something isn't made from nothing, keep your head down, get your food and take care of business.  I don't think you saw Cam's nature, I think you saw Cam the business man.

[CatMan72]

I'm sorry for your daughter's disappointment, but from Cam's perspective once he starts signing autographs or taking pictures the whole restaurant is going to be after him. At some point, he's going to have to turn someone down for a pic or autograph and go home, so it's better not to even start down that path. Knowing the kind of person he is, it must be hard for him to cut himself off from people (especially kids) like that. 

I've taken my kids to the practice field several times and he's taken pictures with them, signed footballs, etc... The practice field is a more controlled situation for him, but even with that control it's a mob scene these days so he rarely stops anymore because there are just too many people out there with boxes full of stuff they want signed to sell on ebay. 

[Nick_81]

I think it was all in the approach.  You have to realize that Cam is, literally, the most sought after guy on the team, as far as pics/autographs go.  If he accommodated everyone that approached him, he'd get absolutely nothing else done.  So when you walk up, or have your kids do it, and say "excuse me," it's just another of the thousand times it's happened that day.  

Cam is my son's favorite player.  One year at camp he was running to practice, and everyone was yelling for him to give an autograph.  He said, "I'll get you after practice."  Well, he didn't get to us, and my son kept saying, "Cam said he would sign for us after practice, and he didn't."  He was obviously sad, but I told him that's just how it works.  He wasn't talking directly to you when he said that, he was talking to the crowd, and he'd be there all day if he stopped for everyone.  He doesn't have time for that.  

It's really not hard to explain to a child.  Mine understood, and he was 4-5 at the time.  You have to tell them that Cam, or any player for that matter, can't stop what he's doing every time someone asks him to.  There's thousands upon thousands of people doing the exact same thing you are.  If it were me, I wouldn't have entertained the picture idea.  I would have told my son/s to just say "good luck Cam," as we walked by.  I'd almost guarantee he would have acknowledged them.  Doesn't mean he's going to have a convo though, just a "thanks" probably.  The "excuse me" approach means, "oh great, another of the billion people that's done this today, wants to take pics and chat."  There's a time and place for pics/conversations.  The restaurant isn't one of them.  Camp, public events, things like that are.