Is race the reason some fans disapprove of Cam Newton's dancing?

Cam Newton is the face of the best team in football. He's the heavy favorite to capture his first MVP.

But many fans (mostly non-Carolina Panthers fans) have had an issue with Newton's penchant to dance in the end zone, celebrate a first down and pose with his teammates on the sideline during a blowout win.

Is the backlash more of an old-school, get-off-my-lawn attitude not willing to embrace a new-school, look-at-me approach?

Or is there something more behind it?

Jason Whitlock stopped by "The Herd" on Thursday and discussed why Newton isn't more embraced and if race has anything to do with it (check it out in the video above).

"My dad was as black as they come. He lived in a black neighborhood, had a business in a black neighborhood. He liked black. Period," Whitlock said. "He would have been uncomfortable with Cam Newton. Now he would have loved him but he would have been like, 'Cut [the celebrating] down, cut all that out. Just a score a touchdown, and handle your business. You don't need to do all that.'

"To attach a racial connotation to people that don't like him dancing and the over-exuberance is unfair," Whitlock continued. "People can like 90 percent of what you do and have this 10 percent problem, and it doesn't mean they're ready to dismiss all of you."

Many fans, however, don't have a problem watching Newton hand touchdown balls to young fans in the crowd. It's filtered down to the other players on the team and become the Panthers' own version of the Lambeau Leap.