No Tat Zone? Cam can’t get any tattoos

by Steve Farace

Richardson likes the "clean" look (Photo - Michael Conroy)

Does anyone else find this story as odd as I do? Jerry Richardson does not want his new star Cam Newton to have any tattoos on his body. Initially I was at a loss for words. I mean, what is the big deal really? What would you say is the percentage of players in the NFL that have tattoos? 50%? 60%? 90%? Whatever it is, it is a decent percentage of the league and this new rule that has been created by the owner of the Carolina Panthers makes no sense at all.

If you are like me, your mind started to search for reasons why Richardson would not want Newton to get inked up. So the first thing that popped into my mind was the race card. Did Richardson tell Jimmy Clausen the same thing? Did he tell Jeremy Shockey that he had to have his ink removed before he came to the team? At first glance it would seem that it is certainly a race issue and that Richardson was an unfit owner. If he was the manager at a company instead of the owner of an NFL team he would be on the unemployment line by now.

Shockey has plenty of ink on his body

Then you think about Steve Smith, the team’s star receiver for the last decade. He has plenty of ink on his body, yet there has been nothing said about it. That kind of turns the dial passed the race card. So, if it isn’t race then what is it? I think only Richardson knows why he asked Newton that. One thing can be clear and that is it won’t matter how many tattoos Cam Newton gets next year if he wins this year. If he goes 10-6 or 11-5 and becomes the star he was drafted to be not even Richardson would mind.

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