Donald Trump is the Cam Newton of this election

Cam Newton recently was asked why he believes he is so divisive. He answered "I’m an African-American quarterback that may scare a lot of people because they haven’t seen nothing they can compare me to", That may have been true for Doug Williams who was the 17th pick of the 1978 NFL draft. He was 6'4" 225 lbs and black. The prototype for a running QB in the 1970's were Fran Tarkenton at 6' 190 lbs and Roger Staubach 6'3" 195 lbs, Doug Williams was a lot bigger and stronger than others at that position. Plus he was the only black QB in the league. He was paid $120,000 a year which was lower than 12 backups in the NFL were paid that year. Doug broke the mold, and went on to become the Super Bowl MVP in 1988. Since then we've had some amazing black QB's like Warren Moon, Steve McNair, Michael Vick, Randall Cunningham, Donovan McNabb etc. When confronted with this truth by ESPN Cam replied;  "I said that I’m not a person that can necessarily be labeled because when I was coming out, I was labeled to guys that no longer are in this league. I didn’t mean it to come off as a race thing; I didn’t mean it to come off as anybody that’s being brash or flamboyant about a specific question. I was saying facts. I am hoping to be a trail blazer to give an avenue not only for African-American quarterbacks, but athletic quarterbacks as well.” Cam found something that had some truth in it, that allows his believers can than call the rest of us racist if we thought his original comment had to do with race. Now let's look at Trump.

 Yesterday Trump said: "We’ve got to do something. You can’t have a — a small percentage of our economy, because they’re down and out, have absolutely no protection so they end up dying from, you know, what you could have a simple procedure or even a pill. You can’t do that. We’ll work something out". For months he had been saying "Obamacare is a total disaster and I'm going to repeal the entire thing". That get's him huge support from conservatives. But liberals have been hammering him with the "what are you going to do for the people who can't afford insurance" question. So now he's giving them this shred of truth. Because we've never allowed people to die who needed a simple procedure or a pill. Today conservatives are hammering him on his socialized medicine plan, so he's saying "I'm not talking about single payer. But look if this means I'm going to lose an election because I want to blow up Obamacare and replace it with something better, then that's fine. Because unlike all of these other guys I'm out here telling you the truth, and I've got the guts to stand up to them and fix it". Complete crap. But again if you like him it gives you something to point to.

Trump and Newton are both incredible talents in their chosen fields. Everyone agrees on that point. Cam is the MVP of the NFL and Trump has become one of the wealthiest and most famous men in the world. But being incredible doesn't make you likeable. To be good you need confidence. You have to believe you can win. But you don't have to gloat and boast about it. You don't have to call people competing with you ugly names. You don't have to do over the top gestures to show you have succeeded in gaining a first down.

When the Cam Newton quote about people not liking him because he's black went viral last week I tweeted to him

Top selling jersey @DangeRussWilson. #7 was @Kaepernick7. USA loves black QB's. Just not @CameronNewton so you need to look beyond race

— Kelly Nash (@KellyNashRadio) January 28, 2016

And if one of the greatest QB's ever was still alive perhaps Johnny Unitas would have tweeted his famous quote; "There is a difference between conceit and confidence. Conceit is bragging about yourself. Confidence means you believe you can get the job done". It really comes down to class. Trump goes on and on about how rich he is, and yet there are lots of people in his own city who have made far more than him. Are they smarter? Maybe but they don't talk about it. Cam says there's nothing we can compare him to in the league right now. But we've seen his game before and we will see it again. It's special for a few years and then it will be forgotten. The greatest athletes of 1916 are all forgotten except for history books that no one reads. In 2116 no one will be talking about Cam Newton or anyone else from today. So seeing that the only people who will remember you, are the ones you're going through life with, you should take care to leave them with a good impression.