Cam Newton hasn’t celebrated his one-month anniversary with Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s First Take and he’s already sick of talking about the Dallas Cowboys.
On a recent episode of his podcast The Edge, Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons and teammate Trevon Diggs ranked their top-5 NFL quarterbacks. Noticeably absent was Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. To be fair, Prescott isn’t playing like a top-5 quarterback this season. But getting snubbed by his own teammates was still loud. Loud enough to be a topic Friday morning on First Take, a programming decision Newton didn’t seem to agree with.
“Why are we talking about the irrelevant Dallas Cowboys?” – Cam Newton pic.twitter.com/e6CptKPuS1
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 1, 2024
“Can I tell you my feelings?” Newton asked Molly Qerim, Ryan Clark, and Stephen A. Smith during First Take’s Cowboys segment. “Can I really tell you my real feelings? Why are we talking about the irrelevant Dallas Cowboys? You’re making a point, Micah Parsons, yes, he’s succeeding with the podcast, and with content.
“That’s the thing, we all have podcasts. But that’s not the only player that’s actively playing with a podcast. We’re talking about a discussion, that if you want to talk about podcasts, Amon-Ra St. Brown has a podcast. We’re not talking about him. Every time I’ve been on First Take, this is my fourth time by the way…we’re always talking about the Cowboys!”
Welcome to First Take and welcome to daytime sports television during the NFL season, where the Cowboys don’t have to be good to remain content kings. Sports fans might get frustrated by First Take’s fixation with the Cowboys, but it’s based on the audience’s interest much more than it is Stephen A. Smith’s. And the rest of First Take was quick to note that after Newton let them know how he really felt.
“For the rest of the time you do TV, you’re gonna talk about them because people care about them,” Clark warned Newton of the Cowboys.
“Cam Newton,” Smith interrupted. “Let me teach you a little something about television. It’s not about what you care about. It’s about what the audience cares about. And the fact of the matter is…no matter how awful, how dysfunctional, how inept they come across, it doesn’t stop!”
If Amon-Ra St. Brown was on the Cowboys and naming quarterbacks who are better than Dak Prescott, you better believe it would be a topic on First Take. But Brown is a great wide receiver in Detroit, and that just doesn’t rate the same nationally.
Friday was Newton’s fourth episode of First Take, and he’s been asked to talk about the Cowboys each time. Get ready to go 5-5, 6-6, 7-7 and so on. Because as Smith noted, it doesn’t matter how good or bad the Cowboys are; ESPN will keep talking about them for as long as they rate.
