On ESPN, Cam Newton Mocks Fox Talent’s Silence on Lawsuit

Cam Newton had quite the metaphor for Mark Andrews’s media silence Thursday. 

Newton, the former NFL quarterback, was on ESPN’s First Take with Stephen A. Smith and Dan Orlovsky. The trio were discussing the Ravens’ tight end not meeting with reporters after dropping a would-be game-tying two-point conversion in the team’s playoff loss to the Bills on Sunday.

Newton backed Andrews’s decision and then brought in the bombshell Fox Sports lawsuit out of left field.

“When there’s a Fox report that comes out and we haven’t heard from anybody speak about anything or make any type of public announcement, nobody has held Fox to that same thing,” Newton said. “So why are we talking about making a big fuss about Mark Andrews if you’re not going to keep that same energy across the board?”

Newton is referring to the lawsuit in brought by a former hairdresser for the network. The suit names Skip Bayless, Joy Taylor, and FS1 executive Charlie Dixon and alleges sexual battery, wrongful termination, and forging a hostile work environment. It was first reported by Front Office Sports. Among the allegations is that Bayless once offered the hairdresser $1.5 million to have sex with her. 

When news of the suit broke, the company issued this statement: “We take these allegations seriously and have no further comment at this time given this pending litigation.”

Smith acted like he was baffled by Newton’s comments before the show moved along.

Since news of the lawsuit broke, the personalities at the center of it, along with current Fox talent, have remained silent while other alumni of the network have weighed in. Shannon Sharpe, an FSI alum who now works with Smith on ESPN, said the lawsuit “has nothing to do with me.” Marcellus Wiley, another former NFL player and FS1 employee, said he was considering his own lawsuit against the network after reading the initial one.  

While Smith never worked at Fox, he was partnered with Bayless on First Take for years.

“I’ve known Skip for just as long and I can’t imagine,” Smith said on his podcast. “The Skip Bayless I know has a hard time giving away $15. He’s one of the cheapest people I know. … Imagining him in this position is shocking to say the least, and all I could tell you is that it’s not the Skip Bayless I know.

“But that doesn’t mean that I have any inside knowledge of this—I don’t. And I’m not going to get involved. It’s incredibly dicey for people who don’t know to act like they know.”