For an NFL media operation in the slow time of the calendar, you don’t pick the stories, the stories pick you.
In an important update to the circumstances that resulted in Panthers quarterback Cam Newton unsuccessfully offering $1,500 for a front-row seat in coach from Paris back to the United States, Andy Slater fills in the gaps as to why Newton wasn’t in first class in the first place.
Apparently, Newton had missed an earlier flight from France to Charlotte, on which he had a business-class seat. He ended up on a plane that would go to North Carolina through North Texas, in coach.
The six-foot, five-inch quarterback wanted more leg room, but he was spurned in his effort to purchase an on-the-spot upgrade.
And that’s where Paul Harvey say, with a trademark pause in the middle, “now you know . . . the rest of the story.” Even if you didn’t want to know any of it.