Sam Newman


John Noel William Newman, better known as Sam Newman, is an Australian media executive and radio and television personality. Originally known for his contribution to Australian rules football as a player for the Geelong Football Club, he has come to be better known as a media personality with controversial views on certain topics.

Early life

Newman attended Geelong Grammar School, where his father was a teacher.
He made his debut for Geelong in 1964 when he was 18 years old. Early in his time at Geelong he acquired the nickname "Sam", by which he is now usually known.

Football career

During his playing career with Geelong he played 300 games and also captained the club and won two best and fairest awards. During the first semi-final against Collingwood in 1967, Newman suffered a serious injury which forced surgeons to remove part of his kidney. He was also selected as an All-Australian player in 1969. He played for the Victorian state team eight times. He retired in 1980, having polled 100 Brownlow Medal votes throughout his career. In 2002, he was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
In December 2005, Newman was appointed as ruck coach for the Melbourne Football Club to mentor players such as Jeff White, Mark Jamar and Paul Johnson.
On 6 July 2010, Newman played in a charity match playing for Victoria in the annual EJ Whitten Legends Game. He kicked four goals from four kicks and three marks to be named best on ground, despite his team losing to the All Stars by seven points.

Media career

Newman joined radio station 3AW as a football commentator in 1981 and continued with the station until the end of the 1999 season. He also appeared on World of Sport on Channel 7 for seven years from 1981 to 1987. He was a panel member of The Sunday Footy Show from 1993 to 1998.
Newman was on The Footy Show from when it first aired in 1994 until 2018 on the Nine Network.
His other media appearances have included the Sunday sports show Any Given Sunday in 2005, World of Sport, The Sunday Footy Show and also co-hosting the short lived Sam and The Fatman with Paul Vautin. On radio station Triple M, Newman previews Friday night and Saturday afternoon matches. He formerly provided special comments during AFL games on Triple M, as well as 3AW previously.
From April 2010, he was a part of the Melbourne Talk Radio lineup, providing opinion and participating in talkback between 9.00 am and 9.30 am, during the Steve Price breakfast program. Newman quit the station in January 2012, after the breakfast producer censored Newman's profanity.
In February 2018, he joined a podcast with former Herald Sun chief football writer Mike Sheahan and former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas entitled Sam, Mike and Thomo. The podcast aired once weekly and covered all trending topics, with a sprinkling of AFL commentary. In March 2019 it was announced by Newman on social media that the podcast would not proceed due to him being perceived to be making fun of transgender people on a prior episode of the podcast. However, in August he revived the podcast, starring Sheahan and former VFL footballer Don Scott, entitled Sam, Mike & Don, You Can Not Be Serious. It was aired with this name until June 2020, when upon Sheahan quitting for a second time due to the fallout of comments made by Scott about former AFL footballer Nicky Winmar, it was renamed to You Can Not Be Serious.
In December 2018, Eddie McGuire announced that Newman has signed a new multi-year deal with Nine, however The Footy Show, of which Newman has been a part of with McGuire since the show started in March 1994, has been all but axed to be replaced by a completely new formatted football show in 2019, of which Newman may or may not be a part of. Newman and McGuire were meant to host four Footy Show "specials" in 2019, but upon it being announced in May 2019 that The Footy Show would no longer be aired this will not be the case.
In June 2020, Newman announced that he will no longer appear on the Nine Network.

Controversies

Newman has regularly been a controversial figure during his media career, with some of his most controversial incidents on The Footy Show including:
In June 2020, Newman arrived at a mutual agreement with the Nine Network to resign from the network after he stated in a podcast that while George Floyd died as a consequence of police brutality, Floyd's extensive criminal record meant he was a "piece of shit".
The following week, Newman engaged in a conversation with Don Scott and Mike Sheahan on the podcast in which they cast doubt that Nicky Winmar's famous jumper raise in 1993 was about Winmar responding to racism, with Scott and Sheahan instead suggesting that they believed it was to signify a "gutsy" effort. Winmar and photographer Wayne Ludbey took legal action against Newman, Scott and Sheahan, alleging defamation, with the parties reaching an agreement during mediation involving a formal apology and an undisclosed donation to an Indigenous charity.

Motorsport

Newman had a brief career in motor racing. He began racing in 1998 in Class C of the Australian GT Production Car Championship where he finished in 10th place in a Ford EL Falcon XR8. In the 1999 Australian GT Production Car Championship he raced a Holden Vectra GL to third place in Class D driving for Gibson Motorsport. He then went on to finish in fourth place in Class D at the 1999 Poolrite GTP Bathurst Showroom Showdown driving with Melinda Price. He then drove the Vectra to fifth place in Class E in the 2000 Australian GT Production Car Championship. He also raced a V8 Supercar at the support races at the Australian Grand Prix in the same year. Running a Gibson Motorsport prepared VS Commodore, he finished 25th, 24th and 23rd in the three races across the weekend.
In 2001, Newman raced a Ferrari 360 Challenge for Prancing Horse Racing as teammate to multiple Australian champion and Bathurst 1000 winner John Bowe in the 2001 Australian Nations Cup Championship finishing in 14th place. In the 2002 Championship, Newman acquitted himself well and improved to finish 10th in the series
Newman's brightest moment in motor racing was when he put his Ferrari on pole position for the 2002 Sandown 500. Newman benefited in the Top 10 shootout for pole as he was the first driver on the track. Before the next driver went out the rain came down and Newman ended up over 6 seconds faster than the 2nd placed Porsche 996 GT3 of racing legend Jim Richards. Newman and co-driver Scott Shearman went on to finish the race 6th outright.
Newman defected to Team Lamborghini for the 2003 Australian Nations Cup Championship and driving the V12 Lamborghini Diablo SVR and GTR models improved to finish 7th outright in the championship. He finished the series in 9th place in Group 1 and 3rd place in Group 2.
After leaving motor racing at the end of 2003, Newman would again race in the 2009 and 2010 Mini Challenge Australia championships, both times at the Albert Park round in the Uber Star Celebrity Car.

Career results

Results sources from:
SeasonSeriesPositionCarTeam
1998Australian GT Production Car Championship Class C10thFord EL Falcon XR8Ross Palmer Motorsport
1999Australian GT Production Car Championship Class D3rdHolden Vectra GLGibson Motorsport
2000Australian GT Production Car Championship Class E4thHolden Vectra GLGibson Motorsport
2001Australian Nations Cup Championship14thFerrari 360 ChallengePrancing Horse Scuderia
2002Australian Nations Cup Championship10thFerrari 360 ChallengePrancing Horse Scuderia
2002Australian Nations Cup Championship Group 22ndFerrari 360 ChallengePrancing Horse Scuderia
2003Australian Nations Cup Championship7thLamborghini Diablo SVR
Lamborghini Diablo GTR		Team Lamborghini Australia
2003Australian Nations Cup Championship Group 19thLamborghini Diablo GTRTeam Lamborghini Australia
2003Australian Nations Cup Championship Group 23rdLamborghini Diablo SVRTeam Lamborghini Australia
2010Mini Challenge Australia31stMini Cooper SBMW Australia

Personal life

Newman lives in Docklands, Melbourne. In 2002, he released a compilation album entitled I Do My Best Work After Midnight, consisting of 13 selections from other artists, as well as two songs sung by himself – "Witchcraft" and "I've Got You Under My Skin". In 2008, he was treated for prostate cancer, and allowed Channel Nine's program 60 Minutes to film the operation. Following the operation, he was cleared of the cancer.