1. Most rational people have had the same take about Sunday’s incident between Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf and a fan who was in the stands: Under no circumstances can Metcalf walk over to the fan and punch him.

It seems pretty basic and straightforward.

Not to Cam Newton, though.

Newton opined on the Metcalf controversy during Monday’s First Take and it was a disaster. It was hard to follow Newton’s logic because the overall clip was just one big word salad, but a couple of lines stood out.

Newton implied that the fan said something egregious to Metcalf, while also saying IN THE SAME BREATH that he didn’t know what happened.

“A line is drawn from a humanistic side that you can’t say that,” said Newton. “Do I know what happened? Do I know what took place for DK to react how he did? No.”


So you don’t know what happened, but you claim the fan said something that you can’t say? That makes no sense.

Then Newton went on to say, “I think we need to bolster the protection because fans are able to do whatever and just fall back on the thought of this is fandom.”

Memo to Newton: Metcalf deliberately walked over to the fan. The fan did not confront Metcalf. What protection needs to be bolstered?

Newton continued to dish out nonsense by saying, “I think as leagues we do need and we owe a responsibility so that these will not happen moving forward. We’ve seen it happen numerous times over the last couple of years in any type of league.”

Um, no. We haven’t seen a player walk from the bench to the stands to punch a fan. It absolutely has not happened numerous times. It’s happened zero times. That’s why Metcalf got a two-game suspension.

Newton capped off the absurd take by saying, “We need to have proper fan protocol.”

To recap: Newton doesn’t know what happened between the fan and Metcalf, Metcalf left the Steelers bench to hit the fan and we need proper FAN protocol?

Fortunately, Jason McCourty brought some sense back to First Take on Tuesday. This is the correct take on Metcalf.

2. ESPN2 aired a Next Gen Stats version of the Niners-Colts game last night. Former Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly was one of the commentators and he clearly hasn’t lost his ability to read a play.

3. Troy Aikman had a great reaction to watching 44-year old Philip Rivers try to run out of the pocket last night.

4. Maybe streaming still has more ground to make up when it comes to being on par with broadcast on the ratings front because the viewership number for the Rams-Seahawks on Prime Video Thursday night was not good at all.

Just 15.36 million people watched what every football fan called the Game of the Year.

5. In mid-October, I wrote a column saying that the annual Notre Dame-USC football game is not a big deal at all in the college landscape. Clearly, I was right because the annual game between the Irish and Trojans is no more for now.

6. This week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina features an interview with the voice of Monday Night Football, Joe Buck.

The veteran broadcaster talks about ESPN’s end-of-season schedule, which will include two playoff games, how he handles “storylines” while calling a game and how everyone at Disney is preparing for ABC/ESPN airing next year’s Super Bowl.

In addition, Buck also sheds light on the Troy Aikman-Caleb Williams dustup from earlier in the season, talks about being named the Ford C. Frick Award winner by the Baseball Hall of Fame, whether he has any interest in hosting Good Morning America and much more.

Following Buck, Sal Licata from SNY TV joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week’s topics include WFAN parting ways with Sal, the state of sports media, Christmas, Nurse Jackie, Rob Reiner’s career and more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: This is the final Traina Thoughts of 2025. I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Cam Newton Had a Truly Terrible Take on DK Metcalf.

Add as preferred source on Google