Famed college basketball coach John Wooden once told his players to “be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
“The true test of a man’s character,” he explained. “is what he does when no one is watching.”
If that’s the test, former Auburn standout and reigning NFL MVP Cam Newton is passing with flying colors.
Unbeknownst to Newton, two football fans captured a grainy cell phone photo of him giving food to a man holding a sign saying “Homeless Please help hungry — food.”
Newton was in Baltimore for the Panthers pre-season game against the Ravens and had just finished dinner at a local restaurant named Sullivan’s when he noticed the homeless man sitting by a bus stop. According to Candace Gregory, who was taking an after-dinner walk around the city’s Inner Harbor, Newton quietly gave an entire bag of food to the man without trying to attract attention.
“They were walking in a group and he slid over, gave the guy the bag and kept moving,” Gregory explained to ESPN. “It was a quick, smooth motion, like he was handing the ball off to a running back. He didn’t linger. He didn’t talk to the guy. You could tell he was trying to be discreet about it.
“People talk about him dabbing and all the stuff that in my mind ultimately should be irrelevant, because that doesn’t get to the heart of who he is,” she continued. “A lot of people were like, ‘Oh my God! That’s Cam Newton!’ The homeless guy had no idea who Cam was. He was just happy to have food.”
When Newton’s Panthers teammates were asked about his act of kindness, they weren’t surprised.
“It’s like second nature for him,” said Panthers backup quarterback Joe Webb. “It’s no surprise that he did it. A lot of people say, ‘What are you doing when people aren’t looking?’ It speaks volumes that he’s a great person.”
(h/t ESPN)
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