Plane Passenger Rejects $1500 To Switch Seats With American Football Star

Most of us have to deal with limited leg room when we fly. But Cam Newton was willing to pay big money to make sure he was comfortable during his flight.

According to a video posted by Eli Edwards, the Carolina Panthers quarterback offered another passenger $1,500 to take his seat, which appeared to offer more leg room. But unlike what most of us would have done in that situation (the money and an autograph, please), the passenger rejected the offer, Edwards said on social media.

The video shows Newton pointing at a seat that’s already been taken — a seat that seems to be in a row without seats in front of it. A seated passenger appears to shake his head at the athlete. Newton then walks to another seat, a few rows back, to settle in for the 10-hour flight.

Edwards, who lives in Alaska, told CNN he was flying back to the US from Paris on the same flight as Newton and had run into him a little earlier at the airport. (It was a big trip for Edwards, who proposed to his girlfriend during the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France.)

“I said hi to him, shook his hand,” he said. When they boarded the plane, he began recording and saw the athlete again as the plane was getting ready to leave.

As Newton tried to make a case for the seat, Edwards said he heard the seated passenger ask Newton his height before rejecting the offer.

The video was posted to Twitter Friday. Last week and over the weekend, Newton posted multiple shots of himself in Paris, France, to his Instagram account.