I know football season is over. I know everyone is tired of hearing about it after the media blitz that encompassed the Super Bowl. But one social topic of the sport was not discussed enough.

 
The media’s treatment and perception of MVP Cam Newton is a grossly under-discussed double standard when compared to how other superstar quarterbacks are treated.

 
Before this season, Newton was still a quarterback attempting to live up to the impossible expectations that are given to every quarterback drafted first overall. This season, Newton revolutionized the quarterback position, becoming the first signal caller to throw 35 touchdown passes and run for 10 more in a season, and lead the Panthers to a 15-1 record and their second Super Bowl appearance in team history.

 
And he did it on his terms. He gave touchdown balls to young fans in the stands. He danced and dabbed all over the field. His beaming smile could be seen from the furthest of seats. He was just having fun, right?

 
The mainstream media didn’t think so. The same mainstream media that imitated his dab until the dance was pronounced dead criticized Newton for celebrating his team’s accomplishments.

 
Sizzling hot takes were delivered nationwide this season, associating Newton with phrases such as arrogant, classless and egotistical.

 
Former coach Jim Fassell said Newton was an undeserving MVP because of the flashy cleats he wears during pregame warmups.

 
One Tennessee woman even wrote into her local paper discussing the terror his dancing caused her daughter who was at a game in which Newton celebrated a touchdown for 30 seconds. She decided to direct her daughter’s attention to the cheerleaders.

 
Great parenting. Rather than watch an entertainer entertain, why don’t you check out these grossly objectified and comically underpaid women?

 
And then there’s the media debacle that came with the birth of Newton’s son, Chosen, who was born on Christmas Eve.

 
The same sportswriters who hated on his antics said he was too arrogant in naming his son Chosen. I can’t make this stuff up.

 
The mother of Newton’s child is his girlfriend of nearly four years. He drew criticism for having a child out of “wedlock,” and a letter to the editor was even published in the Charlotte Observer, the same city where Newton plays, stating that he is a bad role model for having premarital sex and a child with someone who isn’t his wife.

 
What if I told you Newton isn’t the only superstar to have a child with a woman who he is not married to? It’s true. This Tom Brady guy had a child with actress Bridget Moynahan. Not only were the two not married when the child was born, but they were no longer dating.

 
Rather than draw harsh opprobrium from the people who covered him, Brady’s situation resulted in discussion of he and Moynahan being a celebrity power couple after the birth, though, again, the two were not even in a relationship.

 
So what gives? It can’t be a race thing, because it’s 2016 and as a society we have move past racism, right?

 
Wrong.

 
As we’ve seen in instances such as the #BlackLivesMatter movement and subsequent derivatives, #AllLivesMatter and #PoliceLivesMatter, racism still exists. Just as the internet gives a voice to those who use it for good, it also gives a voice to those who use it in a negative fashion.

 
I’m not naive enough to think racism will ever go away. However, it is acutely alarming that writers and bloggers are so transparent in their covert racism and unfair treatment of polarizing athletes such as Newton.