Professional athletes jeopardizing their careers and bank accounts by committing unnecessary crimes is an unfortunate narrative that plays out far too often in the modern era. In the past 24 hours, two New England Patriots players, WR Stefon Diggs and DT Christian Barmore, have been placed under investigation for misdemeanor assault and battery charges.
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Diggs is also facing a felony charge for strangulation or suffocation. And a conviction could mean a five-year prison sentence for him.
According to Cam Newton, Diggs’ actions, in addition to the pending consequences, are a lesson for all athletes. To keep yourself away from trouble, “you gotta have buffers, bro,” advised the Patriots’ former QB1.
“Everybody always asks, ‘Bruh, why don’t you give your phone number away?’ Bruh, I be protecting my peace, man,” Cam said, adding that, “I don’t want people to get too comfortable with me, just texting me at all times. I’m the guy who really will communicate with a person for years on Instagram,” added Newton, who then detailed how an assistant could be of some help.
“I don’t even operate in certain ways, but this is why you should have an assistant or any type of buffer personnel. Like, why are you talking to the chef?” he concluded.
In the eyes of Newton, there’s just simply no need for players like Diggs to stoop to this low a level. Simply put, “the risk that can come from” these types of confrontations is nowhere near worth whatever you may be hoping to achieve. “Any noise is bad noise,” the former 2015 MVP exclaimed.
Given the fact that he was forced to comment on the incident while he is trying to cap off his monumental debut season with the Patriots, the team’s head coach, Mike Vrabel, probably would agree with Newton right now. Although he did maintain that he is not “disappointed at all” on account of “these just being allegations.”
“There are things that we have to handle, and every day there are distractions. Some are smaller than others, and I’m confident that we’ll focus on the Dolphins and those two individuals will be able to handle the ongoing legal process,” Vrabel added, before downplaying the impact of these allegations on his team.
“These are allegations, we’ve made a statement, we’ve taken the allegations very seriously, and what comes of that, we’ll have another discussion, but I don’t think we have to jump to any sort of conclusion right now and let the process take its toll,” said Vrabel, who also mentioned that Barmore was away from the facility due to an illness.
The coach suggested that he isn’t aware of anything that could hinder the overall availability of either Barmore or Diggs for Week 18. That could change if the NFL decided to issue a ruling in the days leading up to the game. However, the league will likely wait until the legal proceedings have concluded before issuing any decision.
