Because racism is seemingly the answer to everything at ESPN, analyst Robert Flores was able to easily ask and answer his own question during a highlight reel on SportsCenter when he openly wondered why the Chief’s Travis Kelce wasn’t getting the same amount of criticism for his end zone celebration as Cam Newton received for his.
Here’s why Flores believes Cam is being treated differently:
ESPN’s Robert Flores takes shot at First Take over Travis Kelce and Cam Newton pic.twitter.com/nKo5LB6pyB
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) November 30, 2015Seriously, how hard is it to be an ESPN analyst? All you have to do is find a white player, a black player, and make racism the sole explanation for any and all difference between them. Wash, rinse, and repeat.
As should be obvious to Robert Flores and his cackling co-hosts, the reason why Cam Newton’s end zone celebration was heavily criticized, while Travis Kelce’s went virtually unnoticed until now, is because people actually know who Cam Newton is.
Travis Kelce could walk through any mall or any main drag in America...actually, scratch that...Kelce could probably walk down any mall or main drag in Kansas City and people wouldn’t know who he was.
However, if Travis Kelce was the number 1 overall draft pick, QB of the last remaining undefeated team in the NFL, a bonafide MVP candidate, and a lightning rod for criticism going back to his college days, to boot, he would be treated exactly the same way as Newton.
As was white quarterback Johnny Manziel when he was passionately ridiculed by talking heads nationwide for rubbing his thumbs and forefingers together and giving the “money sign” after every big play. Under the Flores-ian theorem, Manziel should have been exempt from any public backlash given his pasty complexion. Except he wasn’t. He was excoriated for it. Why?
Because people knew who he was! He was the Heisman trophy winner, the guy who beat Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa, the guy who smoked Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl, and one of the greatest college football players of all time.
Nor, did anyone take it lightly, or turn a deaf ear or blind eye when Cardinals Quarterback Carson Palmer (also white) busted out with a pelvic-thrust celebration. In fact, that was widely publicized because not only is Palmer popular, he and his pelvis were fined by the league for that stunt.
But, none of those obvious and glaring answers for why Kelce might be treated differently than Newton matter at ESPN. Where there’s only one answer they’re looking for…
