By The Oxford Eagle Editorial Board
It’s been almost a week since Cam Newton’s comments to a Carolina Panthers beat reporter — who happens to be a woman — caused a stir in the sports world.
During a weekly press conference, Newton was asked by the reporter, who writes for The  Charlotte Observer, about wide receiver Devin Funchess and if Newton enjoyed his physicality while Funchess ran routes.
Rather than answer the question, Newton laughed and replied: “It’s funny to hear a female talk about routes.”
So we have to ask why.
It’s not just the archaic idea that women can’t – or don’t want to – understand football, it’s the idea that it is acceptable for a man to publicly ridicule a woman for doing her job, even if that job is in an area dominated by men.
Newton wouldn’t likely scoff about the question if it had come from a man, it wouldn’t be funny for a man to be doing his job as a sports reporter, so why is it funny for a woman to hold the same job?
And that’s any job or any hobby, not just sports. And it goes both ways, men are ridiculed for enjoying fashion or other “girly” things.
Why? It’s 2017. It’s far past time for us to stop defining this job, or that interest, as belonging to a man or a woman.
Hey Cam Newton, football isn’t just for boys | The Oxford Eagle