Unlike many analysts, Cam Newton has taken a different view on the whole fight between UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma and South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley at the end of the Final Four game.
After suffering a 62-48 loss, Auriemma walked to Staley and said something that made the Gamecocks coach furious. What should have been a normal post-game handshake soon turned into a heated confrontation that required others to step in to separate two well-respected coaches in women’s basketball.
Most analysts and fans have sided with Staley and finds Auriemma guilty in the fight. However, former NFL star Newton finds the whole beef “good for business.” On 4th and 1 with Cam Newton, the former NFL quarterback said:
“I loved everything that Gino did because it’s good for the sport. Because when you start talking about women’s sports, there’s a sweetheart element to it. Oh, those are women playing. They can’t be beauty and the beast. They can’t have no bravado. They can’t have no chip on their shoulder. There’s a stereotype. And this type of toxicity is good for the sport. Toxicity sells tickets.
“So now all of a sudden, when Dawn Staley doesn’t get a handshake by Geno, I didn’t like , but I loved it all at the same time.”
Newton also believes that it would be good for women’s basketball if even players get into heated confrontation once in a while.
“It shouldn’t just be the coaches,” Newton added. “We need the players now to have a say-so in it. We need one of the players to say, hey, man, listen, you don’t rock with them, they don’t rock with them. We already know where we at with. Women’s sports, there’s always been darlings. We don’t need no more darlings. We need some demons.”
Geno Auriemma Apologized But Didn’t Mention Dawn Staley
A couple of days after the terrible fallout from the Final Four game, Geno Auriemma finally issued a public apology for his unprecedented outburst in the Final Four game.
“It’s unlike what I do and what our standard is here at Connecticut,” Auriemma said in a statement. “I want to apologize to the staff and the team at South Carolina. It was uncalled for in how I reacted.”
But the catch with his apology is that he never mentions Dawn Staley’s name, raising questions whether his ask for forgiveness came from the heart. Staley has also added to the beef, saying she has not heard from Auriemma personally.
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