BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Greg Newsome sees your mean tweets.
Newsome even reads some harsh DMs too and pays attention when he or his teammates don’t get the respect he thinks they deserve be it in video games, rankings or commentary from talk show hosts and analysts.
But, if you were hoping he gets upset by haters, you’re very mistaken.
“I love stuff like that,” Newsome said Wednesday. “I love negative things on social media about me and things like that. I think it’s just gonna motivate me. I’m one of those people that when I see that stuff, I don’t get mad. I get motivated.”
When Pro Football Focus omitted Newsome and Denzel Ward in a June tweet asking who the league’s best corner combo is, the 2021 No. 26 overall pick didn’t get angry. He took a screenshot, quote tweeted their post and wrote: “They sleepin!! @denzelward @gnewsii Wake em up.”
Xavion Howard and Byron Jones of the Dolphins, Jaire Alexander and Eric Stokes Jr. of the Packers, Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Peters of the Ravens and Darius Slay and James Bradberry were included in the site’s ‘Best CB Duo’ post, but not Newsome and Ward.
“Obviously, we’re not on there,” Newsome said. “We’re not doing something right yet, so we’ll get there this season.”
Newsome is among the league’s top emerging young corners while Ward is a two-time Pro Bowler.
The snub is just more fuel for his fire.
“We just gotta prove it more,” Newsome said. “It doesn’t matter about rankings or anything like that honestly. We just gotta get our respect and to get our respect, we gotta earn it every single day. That’s gonna start at practice every day, just getting better and then obviously we’ll be able to show it this season.”
Newsome is used to being counted out. Every time he’s proven the doubters wrong.
“My whole life I've been an underdog,” Newsome said. “I wasn't the highly recruited guy. I didn't go to the biggest school, so that kind of goes along with it. My sister and my mom and my dad, they're all my biggest critics, so I'm not going to let nobody else [bother me]. That's not going to hurt me as much as some of the things they've said to me. I kind of just approach it like that and try to use it as motivation.”
The keyboard warriors, analysts, hosts and data sites aren’t even his worst critics.
That award goes to his mother and sister, who don’t hold back when they’re watching him play.
“It's bad,” Newsome said of their level of criticism.
Really?
“Yes, yes, trust me,” he added.
Newsome broke up nine passes and registered 37 tackles in 12 games – 11 starts – as a rookie but feels he and his teammates have much to prove in 2022.
Atop the list of questions he hopes to answer on the field is, can this secondary be the best in the league?
“Oh for sure. I think that’s our aspiration,” Newsome said. “On paper, I think we can be that but we gotta show that we can do that on the field every game. [There were] games last year where we showed we were really dominant and then there were games where it looked like we took a step back so we’ve gotta find a way to be consistent.”
If history is any indication, Newsome won’t have any problem shutting the haters up and maybe next year he and Ward will make that list.
