Charles Barkley has a lot of love and respect for Cam Newton, and rightfully so, considering that the latter has been one of the highest profile players throughout the 2015 NFL season. Barkley went on the Dan Patrick Show to talk about why Newton and the Panthers are polarizing figures in sports:

Barkley: "I hate bringing up the race card, because there's more important race stuff -- like, the race stuff has something to do with it, number one. But I think that, you know, they rub it in pretty good, in fairness. But you know, there is a racial component, but I hate talking about that, because we as black people, we got way more important things where race is a factor than something silly like sports.



"Let me tell you something: as much as I love Cam Newton, if I played against Cam Newton, I'd put a hit on him. No question, because man, they rub it in pretty good. It's fun to watch, I guess as a fan if you like Carolina ... but they wouldn't be a lot of fun to play against, because if you're dabbing and Superman-ing and you're kicking my butt, I'm gonna get the players together and say, 'First guy to take him out, we gotta get rid of him' 'cause they rub it in pretty good. And that has something to do with [Cam and the Panthers being polarizing] also."

In the midst of his explanation, Barkley dropped a quip about Auburn investing a lot of money in Newton, a reference to his 2010 scandal. (Note: In an earlier version of this post, there was a mistake in the transcription, missing an "if" at the beginning of the quote. Apologies for the error.)

Barkley: "If we gave Cam Newton $200,000 to come to Auburn. Boy, that was a good investment. I wish my financial people had good investments like that."

No matter how you feel about Cam Newton, there's no doubt that he is here to stay.

(h/t @PaulPabst)

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