Defector staff spent the early afternoon wondering what commercial air travel might be like for Cam Newton. Would the quarterback's assorted pocket watches and belts hold up the security line? Could an especially wide-brimmed hat double as a flotation device? These questions arose when friend of Defector Kevin P. sent us photos of Newton boarding a flight today from Atlanta to Baltimore, confirming that the QB really does dress like that all the time.
In addition to the hat, Newton, who "barely made the flight" and was described as possessing a "very very large head," rocked what we identified as an Alonzo Mourning Hornets jersey and a blazer. When Kevin deboarded the plane, he noticed "two large pieces of uneaten cake left behind" on Newton's seat; he believes Newton purchased this cake at the Atlanta airport.
Newton's fashion sense has made him a conspicuous airplane presence before. A 2016 ESPN story about his hatmaker contains a similar anecdote about a different hat:
Mark Anthony Green, the designated “style guy” for Gentleman’s Quarterly magazine, by chance found himself on a red-eye flight with Newton, from Los Angeles to New York City, earlier this year.
They didn’t speak with each other, but the first thing Green noticed was the “Pharrell hat.”
“I was like, ’Man, it is such an inconvenient article of clothing to fly with,’” Green said. “It’s like you can’t be comfortable. He’s already super tall (6-foot-5), and as far as I know he kept the hat on the whole flight, which is hilarious.
“I think it adds a foot and a half, almost two feet (to his height). You just can’t miss him. You weren’t going to miss him before, but now you really can’t miss him.”
If Newton wishes to travel more discreetly next time, he might consider checking his luggage at the airport instead of bringing it on the plane and futzing with it in the overhead compartment long enough that a fellow passenger has time to take photos and send them to us.
