Calls mount for Sam Newman to be stripped of Australian Football Hall of Fame status
Football personality Sam Newman’s recent comments have landed him in hot water and calls are mounting for Geelong and the AFL to act.
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Calls are growing for the AFL and Geelong to remove Sam Newman’s ‘legend status’ following the controversial football personality’s decision to give neo-Nazis a platform.
Last week the 79-year-old hosted National Socialist Network leaders Blair Cottrell and Thomas Sewell on his, ‘You Cannot Be Serious Podcast’.
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While the multiple-time best and fairest winner challenged both of their belief systems, he was slammed for giving the white supremacists a public platform to begin with.
And following the episode many were urging the Geelong Cats and the AFL to strip him of his Australian Football Hall of Fame status and Geelong Hall of Fame status, claiming Newman demonstrated he is not fit to be recognised as a ‘legend’ of the game.
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, led the calls for repercussions, stating Newman has had an “absolute moral collapse” and “plunged into the depths of disgrace for rolling out the red carpet for these men”.
A week on from the controversial episode, Dr Abramovich has gone a step further, calling for the AFL and Geelong to strip him of all his honours, stating the “stakes couldn’t be higher”.
“The Geelong Football Club and the Australian Football League face a defining moment. Will they continue to honour Sam Newman, a man who handed neo-Nazi hatemongers Tom Sewell and Blair Cottrell a golden stage to spread their vile anti-Semitic filth and praise Hitler, or will they act to protect their reputations and values?” Abramovich said in an interview with Code Sports.
“Geelong’s ‘Club Legend’ title is not just a pat on the back. It represents ‘extraordinary deeds, impeccable values, and strength of character.’ But what part of giving Holocaust deniers and white supremacists a microphone to glorify their poison aligns with those values?
“And what about the Australian Football Hall of Fame? Its criteria celebrate ‘integrity, sportsmanship, and character.’
“Well, where was Newman’s character when he gave two notorious bigots the opportunity to mock the Holocaust, dismiss the gas chambers as lies and dehumanise minorities? Real Legends don’t embolden extremists and don’t give hate a single inch to breathe — they obliterate it.”
In response to Dr Abramovich’s latest comments, Newman said, “Unfortunately we are living in times where intelligent people are being silenced so that stupid people won’t feel offended.
“To dignify that diatribe with any other response indicates that person has clearly not listened to the context of the interview.
“If Mr Abramovich would like to come out from behind his little word processor, I invite him to come and have a chat with me.”
The AFL and Geelong have so far refused to weigh in on Newman’s legend status.
Newman, who played 300 games for the Cats, is one of 28 Geelong players inducted as a ‘Club legend’ from its 166-year history.
A legend on the Cats’ website is described as: “Displaying the Club’s values in an exemplary manner, epitomising “The Geelong Way”, and will be a person who is revered, both on and off the field, whether a player, coach or administrator”.
He was also inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2002.
For an AFL player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame factors such as their “record, ability, integrity, sportsmanship and character” come under the microscope.
Where Sam Newman goes controversy follows
While Cottrell and Sewell’s appearance on Newman’s podcast created mass hysteria, it is far from the only controversy the former AFL player has found himself at the centre of.
Newman controversially performed blackface on the Footy Show in 1999, pretending he was Indigenous football trailblazer Nicky Winmar after the St Kilda great refused to go on the program.
While in 2020 Newman resigned from Channel 9 after calling George Floyd a “piece of s---” on his podcast shortly after Floyd’s death.
And most recently he has been a vocal critic of First Nations Welcome to Country ceremonies, calling for them to be scrapped and even suggested ahead of the 2023 grand final fans should “boo” or “slow clap” the ceremony.
In an episode on his podcast You Can’t Be Serious in 2023, Newman told listeners the next time traditional owners “trot out a Welcome to Country” at a public event, fans should start booing.
“What about this, next time you go to a public event like the Grand Final or a football game or any public event in an auditorium and they trot out the Welcome to Country, start booing … or slow hand clapping,” Newman said.
“Because we don’t want to put up with it. We are not going to be patronised,” he said.
“This is dividing the country more than anything. We want to be one homogenous group of people living together and respecting one another.”
Originally published as Calls mount for Sam Newman to be stripped of Australian Football Hall of Fame status
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