Cam Newton hung his head and mumbled one-word answers.
He exhibited the same negative body language we saw for much of the Super Bowl as he sat in front of the media.
The 2015 NFL MVP was dejected, heartbroken and embarrassed, and he couldn’t take it anymore.
So he walked away.
The media is criticizing Cam this week for leaving his Super Bowl press conference. Many are saying he proved his immaturity. He’s being called a bad leader. A sore loser. A bad example of professionalism.
Who cares?
Why do we need to judge?
Think about it. He’s a 26-year-old man who’s worked his whole life for this moment. A spectacular athlete who ripped up the NFL this year en route to 15 regular season wins and an MVP award.
Then, his dream season was destroyed by Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware of the Denver Broncos. On the biggest stage, Cam didn’t deliver. He didn’t make the necessary adjustments. And his offensive line and receivers sure didn’t do him any favors.
After the most crushing moment of his football career, he had to sit in front of a frenzy of reporters, all looking to get that juicy quote for their story, and get “asked” how disappointed he was three different times.
Man, I would be pissed too.
I put “asked” in quotation marks because two of the three times weren’t even questions.
“I know you’re disappointed not just for yourself, but for your teammates. It’s got to be real tough.”
Yeah, dude, what do you think? How would you feel if you just got crushed in the Super Bowl after four months of dominating the league?
"I don’t know what you want me to say, I’m sorry." – A dejected Cam Newton walks off the podium abruptly. #SB50
— NFL (@NFL) February 8, 2016
I know it’s Cam’s job to answer questions after the game, and critics have pointed to all Super Bowl losing quarterbacks having done so, but the questions were terrible.
How about asking, “What adjustments did you discuss implementing at halftime?” or, “Why did you guys shy away from the read-option runs since they seemed to work early on?”
But to be fair, Cam may not have answered those football questions either. He was just too distraught.
I’m not saying Cam should be celebrated for his attitude at the podium. I’m not arguing in favor of athletes walking away from the media any time they’re uncomfortable.
I’m simply saying the backlash against Cam has been totally unwarranted and comes from a place of self-righteousness. Society likes to hide behind the “moral” high ground and ridicule someone rather than reserve judgment.
Some criticize Cam, saying, “He needs to set an example of how to act for the team” or, “If he’s going to showboat when he’s winning, he needs to take the punches when he loses.”
He doesn’t need to do anything. He’s a human being who displayed raw emotion after a tough loss. I’d actually prefer that athletes show true emotion over canned, vanilla answers. I mean, what’s the alternative to “We got outplayed, bro?” Cam saying, “We didn’t play the way we normally play because Denver’s pass rush killed us.”
We all watched the game. We all saw what happened.
If you want to say you expected Cam to be more professional, fine. But don’t say he “needs to mature” or “should set a better example for kids.”
Athletes are people just like the rest of us. They make mistakes. They have bad days. But because they are in the public light, they are held to ridiculous expectations as to how they should act.
Cam still goat https://t.co/O2BAEtCMrk
— Football tweets™ (@footballtwiits) February 10, 2016
If Cam has shown anything this season, it’s that he’s an individual. When he was criticized for celebrating, what did he do? He kept celebrating. He even admitted himself yesterday that he is a “sore loser.”
And I’m not arguing against that. I just don’t understand the outrage at Cam for taking the loss hard. Why do people kick and scream when athletes don’t always fit into the role people expect them to?
In that mold, some have compared Cam’s play at the end of the game to Tom Brady’s play at the end against the same team, but I don’t see the need to compare the two. Cam’s not Tom Brady. Maybe he doesn’t have the mental resolve that veterans like Brady do. Maybe he never will. But why do we have to judge him for it and ridicule him? Let’s call it what it is and move on.
And, yeah, maybe leaving the press conference isn’t an upstanding model for kids, but they don’t need to act just like athletes do. Parents and other adults are there to be role models. Athletes are entertainers.
I love seeing real moments from athletes. And that’s what we saw from Cam after experiencing a rough loss.
Cam could’ve sat there and talked to reporters. He could’ve given cream cheese answers for 10 minutes and left with no controversy.
Instead, Cam Newton walked off in the middle of his post Super Bowl presser.
Now that’s better than any quote out there.
