Panthers’ Cam Newton fumbles after offering $1,500 for an airplane seat with extra leg room

At 6'5", it's understandable why the Carolina starter would want more space for his long legs, but one passenger aboard his flight decided not to catch his pass

Melanie Eversley

Jun 24, 2019

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Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton learned over the weekend that money doesn’t buy everything, when a fellow air passenger turned down his offer of payment for a seat with extra leg room.

At 6′ 5″, Newton knows the value of and appreciates a roomy airline seat, so when he boarded a 10-hour flight Friday from Paris back to the United States, he decided to put capitalism in practice and offered another passenger $1,500 for his seat that offered extra leg room.

Apparently, money couldn’t buy extra leg room for this passenger, who turned Newton down. The situation was recorded and posted on Twitter by passenger Eli Edwards.

“So this happened,” posted Edwards along with the 36-second video that shows Newton, wearing dark glasses and a black hat as he approaches a seated passenger.

So this happened… @CameronNewton offered a man $1500 cash for extra leg room on a 10hr flight and the man said “No??” #GiveFranceTheNFL pic.twitter.com/xQohV9Ngef

— Eli Edwards (@ElisaraEdwards) June 22, 2019

In the video, Newton appears to pause as if in disbelief that the passenger has rejected him. He then smiles and slinks back to his much more cramped seat on the side of the cabin.

Twitter has been having a field day with the exchange, with social media users seeming to be divided over what they would do if Cam Newton propositioned them for their seat.

There were multiple variations of something to the effect of:

“Cam: May I have your seat?”

“Me: ”

I got to appreciate someone who has the cojones to tell a professional athlete “No”.

— Fisher (@ryanfisher122) June 23, 2019

But apparently Twitter user @Rabid_AU, like many others, did not agree and would have taken the money and squinched up their legs for the 10-hour flight.

That guy is an.. pic.twitter.com/bR2lkwm27B

— Ron_H??? (@Rabid_AU) June 22, 2019

Newton, in his eighth season with the Panthers, threw for 3,395 yards in 2018, two years after losing Super Bowl 50 to the Denver Broncos in agonizing fashion. The team has not done better than a 2017 wildcard game against the New Orleans Saints ever since. But at least one fan says he would have given his seat to Newton with enthusiasm.