Cam Newton Made Things Super Awkward by Bringing Up the Fox Sports Sexual Harassment Lawsuit on ESPN

It's been 2 1/2 weeks since we've addressed the lawsuit filed against Fox Sports by a hairstylist at FS1:

Daily Mail - A bombshell lawsuit naming former Fox talent Skip Bayless and FS1 host Joy Taylor in addition to a Fox executive and the network itself was filed by hair stylist Noushin Faraji last week. 

Bayless, 73, is at the center of the series of shocking allegations made in the 42-page lawsuit with Faraji, who previously styled his hair on 'Undisputed,' accusing the former host of using his position to 'sexually harass women' and 'inappropriately touching' her. 

Faraji also made further claims against Taylor and Fox Sports Executive Vice President of Content Charlie Dixon. Taylor is alleged to have used sexual relationships with ex-NFL star co-host Emmanuel Acho and Dixon to further her career.

Those 18 days feel like an eternity, given that the allegations are so salacious, so relevant to the times we're living in, and involve such high profile names. Not to mention such compelling major figures involved:

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You'd think this lawsuit by Noshin Faraji would be at the center of the national conversation. Even though we are dealing with a major upheaval in the halls of power that's taking up most of the oxygen in the news cycle, a story like this still ought to capture the public's attention because it has all the elements. Celebrity. Scandal. Sexual politics. Power dynamics in the workplace. Women accused of sleeping their way to the top. Old men accused of trying to buy sexual favors from women half their age:

But not really. Aside from a few YouTube channels and X accounts staying focused on Faraji's lawsuit, it's been crickets. And for sure the mainstream news outlets have given it a wide berth. 

Fortunately for the rest of us, Cam Newton has never been mainstream. We who are fans of a good scandal as well as socially awkward moments got treated to a great one thanks to the man in the granny glasses and Stratego game piece hat. Shoehorned into a discussion about how Mark Andrews has been avoiding the media since he dropped that pass on the goal line Sunday in Buffalo. To the incredulous reaction of the co-hosts:

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"When there's a Fox report that comes out and we haven't heard anybody speak about anything or make any type of public announcement, nobody has held Fox to that same thing. 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?"

The best part of this - besides watching everyone else on the panel cringe as he brought it up and Stephen A. Smith pretend he didn't hear him/understand what he was getting at, is that Superman is 100% correct here. The best kind of scandals are the ones that involve major media outlets because it's entertaining as all hell to watch them studiously avoid acknowledging it in any way. 

Whether it's Brian Williams at NBC News making up stories where he's always the hero; getting shot at in an Army helicopter or watching corpses floating through the French Quarter during Katrina. Or Matt Lauer being exposed as a serial creep, accused of having a "Rape Button" installed in his office to lock the door from the inside. Or CNN having to pay $5 million and apologize to an ex-military guy they slandered. Every news agency that would never take "No Comment" for an answer if some other company was accused of something suddenly gets really good at building a stone wall of silence when it's one of their own. Or several, in this case. And until Cam Newton brought it up out of the blue, their competition at ESPN has been giving it good leaving alone too. 

As an afterthought, when is one of the cable sports networks going to make Newton full time? Actually, I withdraw the question. They'd just put guardrails up to keep him between the lines and conforming to company policies. It's better that he be free to bounce around to different shows and his own social media stuff, do the kind of content he wants and let it fly. And here he did. The man is a national treasure.