Pat Cummins, netball: Sam Newman slams ‘low IQ’ athletes refusing sponsorships over ethical concerns

Former AFL player Sam Newman has unleashed an extraordinary castration on “awakened” athletes “with low IQs” who are rejecting a million-dollar sponsorship over “ethical concerns.”

He lashed out at a world “ruled by condescending and pompous, arrogant people” and claimed it creates a “ridiculous, wakeful society of nonsense.”

Newman’s comments follow a host of controversies in recent days involving Netball Australia, cricketer Pat Cummins and famous Fremantle Dockers supporters.

On Sky News, Newman said it seems “ridiculous” for Australia’s women’s netball team, the Diamonds, to turn down $15 million from billionaire miner Gina Rinehart.

“But it’s just a matter of judging everything on its merits, because the price of being virtuous is hypocrisy.

The intersection of sports and politics emerged in the past week with three major conflicts.

A dispute between Netball Australia – in dire need of funding – and some of its star players over a $15 million sponsorship deal with Hancock Prospecting stemmed from shockingly racist statements by owner Gina Rinehart’s late father Lang Hancock nearly 40 years ago.

Mr Hancock’s 1984 solutions to “the Aboriginal problem” have become a major problem for the Diamonds, especially team member Donnell Wallam, who is aboriginal.

“Those who aren’t good to themselves and can’t accept things, the half-castes — and this is where most of the trouble comes in,” said Mr. Hancock in the 1984 documentary, “Can’t Be Fairer.”

Donnell Wallam (center) of the Diamonds team is pictured for the Queensland Firebirds against the Adelaide Thunderbirds on April 17, 2022 in Brisbane

“I would anesthetize the water so that they are sterile and would reproduce in the future and that would solve the problem.”

Meanwhile, Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins has been called a hypocrite for objecting to Cricket Australia’s $40 million sponsorship deal with the company a year before starring in an ad campaign for Alinta Energy over “ethical concerns.”

And the AFL has also caught the attention of climate crusaders.

Natural gas exporter Woodside Energy has been a major sponsor of Fremantle Dockers for nearly 13 years, but some high-profile fans, including author Tim Winton and former WA Prime Minister Carmen Lawrence, have urged the club to end the deal.

All of these actions are grist to the mill for Newman, who is never shy about speaking up.

He said he “wouldn’t wear a certain sports shirt if I didn’t agree with what was written on the front,” but “that the netballers are standing up not to take sponsorship money from Gina Rinehart seems ridiculous,” he said on Wednesday. .

He said Ms. Rinehart’s rejection of money “is a guilt of her father, who I believe made those comments, whatever they were, 40 years ago.”

Newman said that “low IQ (tell) (Netball Australia), who are on their knees financially, will not…accept sponsorship deals from a company” whose products are used “on a daily basis.”

Donnell Wallam (pictured) is an up and coming member of the Australian Diamonds squad

“It’s just full of danger, all that nonsense,” he said.

Newman also didn’t pass up the opportunity to address Cummins over his “ethical concerns” over Cricket Australia’s deal with Alinta Energy.

“If you think fossil fuels will disappear in the very near future, you’re wrong, because that’s the end of the civilized world as we know it, whatever you think about the climate, whatever you think about global warming.” earth,’ said Nieuwman.

He added that he noticed that “one of the netball people said they weren’t happy with the Hancock industries because of their climate record.

Seriously, the world we live in is run by condescending and pompous, arrogant people who have no idea what they are talking about.

“(They) make the rest of the people who enjoy life as it is – although we all try to be responsible – (they) make it a nightmare.”

Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins (pictured) has been called a hypocrite for objecting to Cricket Australia’s $40 million sponsorship deal with the company a year before starring in an ad campaign for Alinta Energy over ‘ethical concerns’

Sky News presenter Chris Kenny suggested to Newman that the solution is that if sports stars disagree with their game’s sponsors, they simply shouldn’t play.

But Newman disagreed, saying he “wouldn’t wear a political slogan on my jersey if I didn’t agree.”

“But the passive, benign corporate logo of something that produces iron ore, or produces energy that you might not agree with, it’s just so simplistic,” he added.

Newman said those who run sports teams and codes a “duty of care’ to ‘say to the grassroots before they sign up: ‘We’re letting Alinta Energy or Hancock mining sponsor us, do you have any problems with that?’

“And if they have, you could really sort it out before they close the deal,” he said.

But in the end, Newman said that if he was Gina Rinehart — “I’d take my $15 million and say, ‘Keep it.'”

Amy Parmenter of the Australian Diamonds passes the ball during the Constellation Cup match against New Zealand’s Silver Ferns at John Cain Arena on October 19, 2022 in Melbourne

Kenny asked Newman about Tim Winton and Carmen Lawrence wanting the Fremantle Dockers to stop energy giant Woodside from sponsoring them, which he says would cause financial anxiety for the club they say they love.

Newman didn’t answer that right away, but generally turned the AFL down.

“If I could go one step further (about) the feigned outrage of the AFL insisting on telling us we should be the moral arbiters of what we believe in.

“I’ve said this before. At the AFL Grand Final, we had three references to Indigenous Australians.

“One of them is absolutely appropriate and no one could agree more,” Newman said.

Gina Rinehart (right) is pictured with her father Lang Hancock, who started the Hancock Prospecting company. His comments from a 1984 interview angered members of the Diamonds team

“But they had three separate references… so we wouldn’t be told that we (should) respect everything that happens in the country.

“They made a Muslim woman (Haneen Zreika from the Giants) the face of the AFLW, and then… she refused (to) wear the gay pride jersey,” he said.

“When you enter the political realm in a sports organization, you end up creating a hornet’s nest for the people who want nothing more than to go to the football or sporting event and see it for what it is.

“But they keep pushing this moral code on us, perhaps to appease their own social prejudices, and it’s going to be a ridiculous, wakeful society of nonsense.”