I tend to write every now and then about sports. I've never posted anything on the blog but I figure, if it's already written, why not post it? Sports is a big part of my life so I might as well share my thoughts.
With the Super Bowl being yesterday, there has been a lot of talk of how Cam Newton handled himself at the news conference after the game. This 26 year-old is catching a lot of flack for being a sore loser. Most of it is coming from the media desperately trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. And where the media goes, the general public soon follows because a lot of people have trouble thinking for themselves. But that's for another day, another blog post.
So what happened? The Panthers lose to the Donkeys. The Panthers made way too many costly mistakes. The Denver D gets away with a ton of instances that are against the rules. They beat up Cam, the quarterback of the Panthers, much later than the rules allow many times. Denver isn't punished, though, in most of the cases. With all that going on, it keeps Cam and the Panthers from moving the ball. The Panthers should have played better but to a lot of non-Bronco fans, it appeared that the game might be fixed. Now, I won't go as far as saying the game was fixed because players still have to play the game but it did at times appear the league was strongly nudging the game in the direction to help what the league thought was the best storyline happen. Those nudges made for huge point swings that could have cost the Panthers the game. But again, the Panthers certainly didn't help themselves either. Had they just cleaned up their own mistakes, they probably would have won.
Well, after the game, Cam was not happy. You could tell he was pissed and extremely saddened to let his chance to win a Super Bowl slip away. He sulked having to answer the questions. At times, he gave one-word answers. Towards the end, you start hearing the Broncos press conference occurring nearby. To the losing team, it certainly could come across like gloating or trash-talking. Those conferences should never have to hear each other. It was pretty poor planning by the league. Or maybe it was planned out that way to get a poor response out of the losing team. I think the NFL views drama as good. They love it even when they pretend they don't. It keeps people talking. It keeps their eyes on the NFL. As they say in Hollywood, the only bad publicity is no publicity at all. Well, the league got their drama. Eventually, he just got up and left before the interview was officially over.
I
think Cam's actions were fine. The NFL puts players like him in a really bad
position after games. They force you to do a conference right after the game and then tell you what you can and can't say. That's ridiculous. It would be much better, at least for the losing team, if they actually gave
players a day to cool off before releasing them to the wolves that are
the media.
Even the much worshiped
Peyton Manning (except for that stretch during the season where fans hated him, booed him, and basically threw him under the bus) has had his bad moments in front of the press. That's what you get with extreme
competitors...which we want but only certain aspects of it.
Cam shouldn't be criticized for the press conference just because he's not who people want him to be. Cam is a competitor. He should be mad after a loss. He should be sad. It will probably stick with him till he plays his next game months from now. I'm
the ultimate competitor. It's taken me years to get to the point where
losses don't destroy me and ruin my week. I still hate losing though. I get where Cam was coming from. The media and the fans will criticize but deep down, those people don't want Cam to change because they know that hate of losing, that competitiveness is going to drive him to be better. We say we want one thing and criticize but really want another thing. It's hypocritical.
I'm sure Cam was not only hurting emotionally during the press conference but also hurting physically...because he got the snot beat out of him. He took some illegal helmet to helmet shots to and may have been slightly concussed. He certainly didn't seem like the same Cam we're used to most of the game. The league normally protects players from speaking after getting concussions but if Cam was concussed, I'm guessing he didn't tell anyone. It's the Super Bowl. You tell someone you might be concussed and they sit you the rest of the game. No player is going to do that. I've had plenty of concussions in my life. That's no state of mind to be in and have to deal with the press.
Quite frankly, Cam probably had nothing nice to say so he said very little and then chose to say nothing at all. Isn't that what we teach kids from young age? If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. If he doesn't want to talk, he shouldn't have to. He could have easily said that they lost because the Broncos D is the dirtiest in the league. He could have also said that the refs did all they could to give the game to the Broncos. He could have thrown his line under the bus and blamed the loss on their terrible play. Though all of that was probably going thru his mind, he chose not to. Instead, he said little and eventually left. I don't blame him. He basically told the truth that everyone on the team needed to play better including himself. He gave the reporters enough to write their stories and left before saying something he'd regret. We should be patting him on the back, not crucifying him.
The truth is, I'm not normally a Cam supporter. Cam actually annoys me most of the time but this isn't one of them. I do see him maturing...and becoming less annoying. I'm actually a big fan of him giving touchdown balls to kids in the stands. It's a step forward for him. It's cool that he's pouring into the kids and probably making their whole year. He's seems like he's making strides in life and on the football field. Let's not kick him while he's down. And lets be honest, aren't there bigger things in football and in life to worry about than a 26 year-old's press conference that will be forgotten in a month or much shorter?
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