What Is Sam Newman's Net Worth?
Sam Newman is an Australian retired Australian rules footballer and media personality who has a net worth of $10 million. Sam Newman played for the Victorian Football League's Geelong Football Club from 1964 to 1980, and he was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2002. Sam has won the Carji Greeves Medal twice, and he was selected for the Geelong Team of the Century and inducted into the Geelong Hall of Fame. Since his retirement, Newman has worked as a specialist ruck coach at several AFL clubs, served as a co-host on Nine Network's "The Footy Show" and a football commentator on the Melbourne radio station 3AW, and co-hosted the podcast "You Cannot Be Serious." Sam also had a brief motor racing career, competing in events such as the Australian GT Production Car Championship and Australian Nations Cup Championship in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Early Life
Sam Newman was born John Noel William Newman on December 22, 1945, in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. Sam studied at Geelong Grammar School, and his father taught there. In 1964, Newman began playing for the Geelong Football Club at the age of 18, and his teammates gave him the nickname "Sam."
Career
Newman played five reserves games for the Geelong Football Club, then he made his senior debut in a 1964 match against the Fitzroy Football Club during round three of the Victorian Football League season. He seriously injured himself during a 1967 semi-final against the Collingwood Football Club, and surgeons had to remove part of his kidney. In 1969, Sam was named an All-Australian player, and he played for Victoria's state team numerous times. Newman played for the VFL until 1980, and he was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2002. He won the Carji Greeves Medal, which is given to the "best and fairest" player, in 1968 and 1975, and he was Geelong's captain from 1974 to 1975. In 2005, Sam joined the Melbourne Football Club as a ruck coach, and in 2010, he played for Victoria in the EJ Whitten Legends Game for charity. Though his team lost to the All Stars, Newman was named Best on Ground after kicking four goals.
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From 1981 to 1999, Sam worked as a football commentator for the radio station 3AW, and he made appearances on Channel 7's "World of Sport" from 1981 to 1987. In the late '80s, he wrote a column for the Melbourne newspaper "The Sun News-Pictorial." In 1989, Newman joined the Nine Network and was featured on an "In Melbourne Today" segment with Denise Drysdale and Ernie Sigley. In 1992, he served as a reporter for the current affairs program "Melbourne Extra," and from 1993 to 1998, he was a panelist on "The Sunday Footy Show." From 1994 to 2018, Sam co-hosted "The Footy Show," which focused on Australian rules football and won the Logie Award for Most Popular Sports Program eight times. In 2018, he entered into a multi-year deal with the Nine Network, but he ended up leaving the network in 2020. Newman also had a motor racing career, finishing in third place in the 1999 Australian GT Production Car Championship (Class D), fourth place in the 2000 Australian GT Production Car Championship (Class E), second place in the 2002 Australian Nations Cup Championship (Group 2), and third place in the 2003 Australian Nations Cup Championship (Group 2).
Personal Life
Sam has been married four times, and he welcomed his sons Geordan and Jack in the early '80s and son Max in the late '90s. After 20 years together, Newman wed Amanda Brown on November 20, 2020. On May 1, 2021, Sam came home to find Amanda on the floor of their Melbourne apartment and attempted to revive her with CPR, but sadly, she passed away. A few weeks after Brown's death, Newman told 7News, "They say she died from an aneurysm, a stroke. I have no idea what brought that on. She had no illnesses, no underlying health problems. Just to come home under those circumstances and find her where she was… well, I'll just never forget that. I can't." Sam also revealed that he had decided to move out of the apartment because it might "help ease the pain a bit more."
In 2002, Sam released the album "I Do My Best Work After Midnight." The album included 13 songs by other artists, and Newman performed the tracks "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "Witchcraft." In 2008, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and he underwent surgery to have his prostate removed. Sam let Channel Nine's "60 Minutes" film the four-hour procedure, and after the operation, Newman's urologist told him that "the cancer is just inside the prostate … and we've got it all out cleanly."
Controversies
Sam has caused many controversies during his media career. When Nicky Winmar failed to show up for a 1999 appearance on "The Footy Show," Newman wore blackface to impersonate the Indigenous AFL footballer. In 2008, Sam groped a scantily clad mannequin that had a photo of sports commentator Caroline Wilson's face stapled to it, which led to the Nine Network suspending him. After several female AFL club directors complained about the skit, Sam called them "liars and hypocrites," and one of the women sued the network for more than $200,000. In 2014, after openly gay NFL draftee Michael Sam kissed his partner on live TV, Newman called the move "annoyingly gratuitous," and in 2017, he referred to transgender media personality/Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner as "it." That year Sam also ranted about the AFL Commission supporting the legalization of same-sex marriage. In 2020, Newman and the Nine Network mutually decided that he should leave the network after he attracted controversy for calling George Floyd, who died as a result of police brutality, a "piece of shit" on his podcast.
