Sam Newman was born on 22nd December 1945. He is an Australian television and radio personality, media executive, ex Footy player and racing (Motorsport) driver. Sam Newman is famous for his controversial utterances and behaviour on and off the air.
Probably, his controversial nature is what makes him tick. Sam Newman’s Net worth $10 million. His estimated net worth is from earnings as a football commentator and analyst both on television and radio.
Newman is not someone that shies away from controversy, just like other celebrities. He embraces it. His media career has revolved around controversial comments or rants made at one point or the other. Do you think he is doing these intentionally to hurt people or to draw attention to himself? Continue reading to gain insight into the life, age, podcast, net worth and height of this man who you never knew Sam was not his real name.
Early Life
The 74 years Sam Newman was born in Geelong Victoria. His father was a teacher at Geelong Grammar School. He attended Geelong Grammar School and joined the school’s football team. In 1964, he made his debut in the school team at the age of 18. This was when he received the nickname ‘Sam.’ He was born John Noel William Newman.
He graduated from Geelong Grammar School and began playing professional football for his hometown team.
Football Career
Newman began his football career in 1964 immediately after college. He played 300 games for Geelong Cats between 1964 and 1980. During this period, Newman captained the club winning two major awards in the process; The Carji Greeves medals – the Best (1963) and the Fairest (1975). Newman’s football career was threatened in 1967 when he suffered a severe injury leading to the removal of a part of his kidney. In 1969, he was named in All Australian Team of the Year.
Before his retirement in 1980, he played for the Victoria State team featuring eight times. After twenty years of retirement from football, he was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2002, and named in Geelong Football Club Team of the century.
Having played as Ruckman during his successful career, Melbourne Football Club appointed Newman as a ruck coach in 2005. He served as a mentor to many Melbourne players. Newman featured in a charity match of EJ Whitten Legends Game played annually. He was a member of the Victoria team and contributed significantly to the game, although his side lost to the All-Stars.
Newman had a brief stint in Motorsport
Newman had a brief stint as a racing driver. He began his racing career in 1998 in a Class C race. The closest Newman came to winning a medal was in 1999 Australian GT Production Car Championship. As Gibson Motorsport driver, he raced to third place in class D in Holden Vectra GL. He repeated the feat in 2003, having switched to the Lamborghini team for the 2003 Australian Nations Cup.
Newman: Media Career
At the end of his professional football career, Newman joined the Australian ‘3AW’ radio station as a football commentator in 1981. He maintained that position for 18 years. Newman featured on World of Sports on Channel 7 from 1981 – 1987. He provided special comments during AFL games for 3AW and Triple M radios.
In 1994, he joined the panel of The Footy Show (AFL) when it was first aired. He was a part of The Footy Show panel until 2018 when the Show was taken off air for a period because its rating dropped. The drop in the Show’s rating came after Newman’s infamous ‘silent protest’ and refusing to speak throughout an episode. The protest was against a producer who disallowed him from dressing up like a woman in mockery of two senior AFL executives who were exposed as having had affairs with junior members of staff. The aftermath saw the sack of Craig Hutchison as co-host and Eddie McGuire’s return to The Footy Show.
Newman was a panel member of The Sunday Footy Show that ran from 1993 to 1998. He resigned from his position from Melbourne Talk Radio in January 2012 because the program producer censored his profanity.
In June 2020, Newman resigned from his position at Nine Network after comments he made about George Floyd’s death received strong criticism from public, colleagues, and ex-players. They called for his sack. He told the Herald Sun, ‘The station rang me and said: ‘We are getting a bit of blowback from some of your comments’ and I said: ‘Well, I don’t want to put the station in an invidious position, any more than I have in the past. I’m very happy if it will solve anything for you, very happy to withdraw forthwith from appearing on the network.’ Notwithstanding, he never withdraw or apologized for his comments, instead insisted that his statement was correct.
Sam Newman Podcast
Newman joined a weekly podcast which covered all trending topics and AFL related commentary. The podcast had three members who formed the title of the podcast (Sam, Mike, and Thommo). Other podcast members are Mike Sheahan, who was former Herald Sun Chief Football writer, and Grant Thomas former St. Kilda coach. Newman’s comment on transgender people appeared to make some people uncomfortable, leading to the podcast’s suspension in March 2019. By August, it was revived with Don Scott former VFL Football replaced Grant Thomas; hence the title changed to Sam, Mike and Don You Can Not Be Serious. Unfortunately, Mike Sheahan quit in June 2020 following Scott’s comment about former AFL Football Nicky Winmar. Nicky Winmar and Wayne Ludbey, the photographer of the famous picture where Winmar was pointing to his skin in 1993, took legal actions against Newman, Scott and Sheahan.
Sam Newman: Net worth
Newman is worth $10 million. His estimated net worth is from earnings as a football commentator and analyst both on television and radio.
Sam Newman: family and wife
Newman has been married thrice and has three sons. His third marriage was to Leonie Jones from 1996 to 1999. Currently, Newman lives in Ducklands, Melbourne.
Controversies around Newman
Although viewers enjoy his positive vibes the Show, some of his rants or comments could be avoided. Here is a quick run of Newman’s controversial moments.
- In June 2020, Newman made a comment relating to the gruesome murder of George Floyd, which had sparked the global protest. He said, ‘The protest was about police brutality, then it morphed into all those other things than they came out and said it’s about racism here and Aboriginals. Floyd was dead because of the police brutality, and it should never have happened. But I am telling you who George Floyd is, now they’ve made a monument about him, and he’s a piece of sh***’
- In June 2017, he took a swipe at transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner when he said, ‘I know who he … it is,’ ‘Oh, well, what is she? Is it a he or a she. Is it transgender, is it?’
- In 1999, Newman appeared on The Footy Show with his face painted with black shoe polish after Nicky Winmar refused to appear on a billed program.
- Newman pretentiously hit David Schwarz with a pie in the face during an appearance on The Footy Show to celebrate his 150th appearance for the Demons. Schwarz reacted instantly by shoving Newman to the ground.
- In 2012, he reacted to a move by AFL to list marijuana as a banned game dace for players by smoking a bong on-air revealed to be tea leaves.