Cam Newton missed his moment of truth at Super Bowl 50

Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers didn’t come through in Super Bowl 50, and in not doing so the MVP quarterback had a golden opportunity.

Since his time in high school, all the way through college and JUCO, to his Heisman winning national championship season with the Auburn Tigers, Cam Newton has pretty much been a winner…on the field.

Even when his decisions off the field were anywhere from poor to downright stupid, his talent and ability to lead a football team always seemed to shine through. He won championships at every level, and in Super Bowl 50, he had a chance to do so at the highest possible level.

Sometimes, those things don’t quite work out, as Cam and the Panthers found out in their 24-10 loss to the Denver Broncos.

Backtracking a bit, this season with the Carolina Panthers has been a magical one for Cam. He was finally surrounded with enough talent to compliment his skills, and other than a mystically odd loss to the Atlanta Falcons, the Panthers put together a near perfect season leading into Sunday’s NFL finale.

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All season long, the talk hasn’t been about Cam’s on-field football performance (which garnered him a league MVP trophy the day before the Super Bowl), but rather about his continued antics on the field – the dancing, the strutting, the dabbing, the Superman schtick – all of it becoming fodder for his critics.

The answer always seemed to come back – whether it be from Newton or his supporters – that he was just having fun, and enjoying the game he loved.

Fine.

But Sunday was Newton’s chance to shine and show that he had grown and become worthy of being the face of the NFL, and that he had matured from the kid we saw sulking under his Gatorade towel during some of Carolina’s leaner years.

It was his chance to shine…not in victory…but in defeat. It would have been easy for Cam to be gracious and thankful to the God he so often references had the Panthers prevailed. It wouldn’t have taken a lot of effort for the Dab King to flash his pearly whites and answer questions from the media had he been able to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

No, it was in a Panthers loss that Cam Newton could have put an end to the criticism and proved that everyone was wrong by tagging him with words like “arrogant” and “childish”.

And Cam blew it.

He blew it in the worst possible way, by all but ignoring reporters at the post-game presser and then taking his blank stare and hoodie-covered head off the stage with nothing more than a defiant grunt.

News Flash, Cam. Even Superman had bad days. It’s part of life, and you have to deal with the losses that you are handed with the same poise and strength that you do the wins. Becoming stoic and sulking…not a good look for a guy who many people already consider to be a child.

Cam is the fiftieth quarterback to lose a Super Bowl, but (to my recollection) he’s the first one who essentially ignored his duty as a member NFL to talk to reporters and answer a few questions with some dignity and grace. Even giving the typical prefab answers would have been preferable to his response.

Give a nod to the other team. Give thanks for being a part of such a rich experience. Thank your teammates and coaches. Give the ol’ “We’ll get ’em next year” speech. Anything. Anything but stomping off stage like a kid who was just put on TV restriction.

If Cam had been even a shade of the Cam we saw all season long, the noise surrounding his behavior would have practically ceased. Now he’s just given his detractors enough ammo to load both barrels and take a deep breath. The first time Newton strikes a pose on the field next season, his behavior at this moment will get thrown out there. Even if he comes back this week with an apology, it will be looked at as a forced PR move.

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Cam Newton had his moment to show how great he was, and he tossed it aside and chose to regress to the Cam everyone accused him of being. It’s going to be a long road to convincing people of anything different now.

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