Sam Newman rages against George Floyd, AFL protests & LeBron James

Sam Newman has delivered a scathing rant against George Floyd as well as taking aim at LeBron James and calling for protests to end.

Sam Newman accused LeBron James of dividing rather than uniting people.

Sam Newman has once again blasted AFL players protesting as part of the Black Lives Matter movement with some explosive comments about George Floyd before taking aim at NBA icon LeBron James.

The Geelong great and former Footy Show panellist was vocal on Twitter over the weekend as AFL players took a knee around the centre circle before the opening bounce of each game.

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Newman urged players to “stop the preening” and questioned if they even knew why they were protesting.

The 74-year-old also hit back at “piece of work” Caroline Wilson after the veteran AFL journalist scolded Newman for his “divisive” social media rant.

There have been marches Down Under to raise awareness of the issues facing Indigenous Australians, but Newman, on his podcast You Cannot Be Serious, said we shouldn’t be following a protest movement that was reignited in the US, saying the “whole cause has been overlooked” and saw him label Floyd a “piece of s***” in an explosive outburst.

“No one (in the AFL) knows why they’re kneeling at this stage, which was inspired by an American event,” Newman said.

“The players wouldn’t have knelt if George Floyd hadn’t been suffocated by a disgraceful act by the American police.

“The protest was about police brutality, then it morphed into all those other things then they came out and said it’s about racism here and Aboriginals.

“People wonder why we take this from overseas. That wasn’t the reason they knelt in the first place, it was police brutality.

“That’s why they got on a knee, they were protesting against police brutality and then it morphed into Black Lives Matter and then it morphed into defund the police then it got to racism then it got to looting and … the whole cause has been overlooked.

“When you see people kneeling in our game, for God’s sake make it apparent what they’re kneeling (for).”

Newman then expressed his offence with the statement made by Los Angeles Lakers star James on Twitter last month after the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was shot while out jogging in America.

RELATED: Newman responds after Wilson takes aim

We’re literally hunted EVERYDAY/EVERYTIME we step foot outside the comfort of our homes! Can’t even go for a damn jog man! Like WTF man are you kidding me?!?!?!?!?!? No man fr ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!! I’m sorry Ahmaud(Rest In Paradise) and my prayers and blessings sent to the..... pic.twitter.com/r1PNxs8Vgn

— LeBron James (@KingJames) May 6, 2020

LeBron James is advocating for racial equality.

Newman accused James — who has regularly used his fame to draw attention to social issues — of dividing people rather than uniting them.

“This is LeBron James’ statement, this is what you’re dealing with, this is how you divide people,” Newman said.

“Now what sort of irresponsible nonsense is that and how does that unite people? That does more to drive a wedge between people, that divides people.

“That’s meant to be a responsible person who is meant to be partially educated. Why do people put up with nonsense like that?”

Newman called Floyd’s death “disgraceful” but referenced the 46-year-old’s criminal history (he was arrested several times) and suggested it was wrong to have “monuments” devoted to him.

“George Floyd … is piece of shit,” he said. “He has been in jail five times, he held up a pregnant black woman with a knife, he’s a drug addict, he’s a crackhead and he’s a pornstar.”

“He’s dead because of the police brutality and it never should have happened. But I am telling you who George Floyd is, now they’ve made a monument about him and he’s a piece of shit”.

The AFL figure also denied Australia was a racist country as people call for more to be done to help Indigenous communities.

“If you keep telling people in Australia that we are systemically racist, you end up dividing people rather than doing the good of trying to unite people because this country is not systemically racist,” Newman said.

“That is lumping every person in the country into saying we are racist. We are not racist.

“There are certain people who revel in being racist and getting on your knees, it won’t affect them at all because they are evil people and they are breaking the law.”

Newman also used his podcast to hit back at Wilson, calling her “hypocritical” and an “irrelevant, insignificant bag of wind”.

But Geelong champion Patrick Dangerfield won’t be following Newman’s advice to stop mixing politics with sport, agreeing with Wilson it’s necessary for AFL players to take a stand.

“We have such a wonderful platform as athletes and we have to use it for more than just kicking a footy,” Dangerfield told 3AW.

“I’d challenge anyone that has an opinion that players should shut up and dribble or just focus on kicking a footy.

“We owe it to our Indigenous peoples that we do better than we currently do.”