The sports reporter Cam Newton patronized during a press conference Wednesday is now apologizing for racist tweets she made a few years back.
Jourdan Rodrigue, who covers the Carolina Panthers for the Charlotte Observer, asked Newton:
“I know you take a lot of pride in seeing your receivers play well. Devin Funchess has seemed to really embrace the physicality of his routes and getting those extra yards. Does that give you a little bit of enjoyment to see him truck-sticking people?”
Newton seemed surprised a woman might actually know something about the game.
“It’s funny to hear a female talk about routes like that,” he said. “It’s funny.”
Various other sportswriters came to Rodrigue’s defense. So did Dannon yogurt, which dropped Newton as a spokesman on Thursday.
Gatorade also released a statement saying Newton’s comments ”were objectionable and disrespectful to all women and they do not reflect the values of our brand.”
Newton has yet to apologize to Rodrigue for his comments, but the story has led to the discovery of some social media skeletons in her own closet: at least three racially insensitive tweets she made in 2012 and 2013.
Rodrigue has since deleted the tweets, but not before others preserved screenshots.
One of the tweets references someone making racist jokes as if it’s a good thing, while another talks about her dad being “super racist as we pass through Navajo land.”
Another tweet discusses Dale Earnhardt and uses the term “n***a,” a word that should never be used by anyone who’s not black.
After the offensive tweets were circulated, Rodrigue posted one apologizing for them. The Charlotte Observer also posted the statement.
The paper’s sports editor Mike Persinger declined to comment to HuffPost, saying the outlet “is working on its own story and that will be the statement.”
Meanwhile, many people weren’t impressed by Rodrigue’s apology.
Some people didn’t think Rodrigue’s racially insensitive tweets negated Newton’s sexist comments.
But there was pushback.