Do we like Sam Newman?
Our score: 2 out of 10. A long run of his own remarks about trans and Indigenous people, and a formal apology after a legal fight, with little verified good to set against it.
The Jenner moment is where the trans-related run starts. In 2017 Newman referred to Caitlyn Jenner as “it” on The Footy Show, and the Star Observer reported he later apologised for what he called “inappropriate pronouns”. He also said he'd taken “a bit of a belting” and couldn't “apologise any more”, which reads more like a shrug than sorry.
In March 2019 he went again, posting a video with Mike Sheahan and Grant Thomas joking about transitioning to win world titles as a woman. PinkNews reported that trans footballer Hannah Mouncey called him “an embarrassment and a fool”, and he removed the video. On radio he defended it as highlighting a “ludicrous proposition” about trans athletes, so no retreat there.
The Nicky Winmar saga is his biggest stain. After Newman, Don Scott and Mike Sheahan used their podcast to question Winmar's famous 1993 jumper-lift, the trio reached a $100,000 settlement at mediation in 2020. The money went to the Michael Long Foundation, and they issued a public apology saying that “any suggestion otherwise was wrong”. Credit where due: that's a proper apology, but it came after legal action, not before.
Then there's Welcome to Country. In 2023 he urged fans to boo the ceremony at the AFL grand final, drawing a petition of thousands of names to strip his Hall of Fame honour, according to the National Indigenous Times. Later he conceded it was “an extravagant statement”, so a partial walk-back, still not a lot of warmth for First Nations Australians.
The harm check, in plain terms: this is his own words, repeatedly, about trans people and Indigenous Australians, not just the company he keeps. Newman's defence is that he's a provocateur and it's all tongue-in-cheek, which is how he framed the booing call. Where you land depends on whether you think a joke excuses a pattern. Here, it doesn't.
On the good side of the ledger, the verified list is thin. The settlement did fund an Indigenous education charity, and he did sign the apology, but we couldn't find a record of him standing up for others at a cost to himself. Nothing new turned up on him lately, so this is the long-run picture, not a fresh scandal.