Cam Newton enters Super Bowl 50 as the front-runner for the NFL MVP, having led the Panthers to a 15-1 regular season and to the brink of the first championship in franchise history with a dual-threat, fan-friendly skill-set.
Yet, despite having never been a part of any major incidents during his five-year pro career, the star quarterback remains as criticized as he is celebrated, drawing particular ire over his penchant for dancing after touchdowns.
What remains a mystery to many — how Newton is as popular as he is polarizing — isn’t as challenging for the 26-year-old quarterback to understand.
“I’ve said it since Day One, I’m an African-American quarterback that might scare some people, because they haven’t seen anything they can compare me to,” Newton said at a press conference Wednesday. “Oftentimes, it’s funny, I get inspired, it makes me go out there and practice even harder because I remember when I was working out for the draft and I would see the Senior Bowl playing, I see these guys out there busting their tails, trying to get drafted, trying to have a job to provide for their family or themselves and it’s like, here I am, I’m doing exactly what I want to do, how I want to do it.”
Super Bowl 50 marks the fourth straight title game featuring a black starting quarterback, though Newton is just the sixth black quarterback to start in the game.
The former No. 1 overall pick, who threw for 3,837 yards and 35 touchdowns, while running for 636 yards and another 10 scores, could join Doug Williams and Russell Wilson as the only black quarterbacks to win a Super Bowl, but Newton believes no amount of success will allow him to win over his numerous detractors.
When Newton fumbled with his team down six points and just four minutes to go, he stepped back away from the ball and allowed Denver to recover it on the Carolina four yard line, costing his team any chance at winning the game.
Skip Bayless tweets: “Cam obviously should have given himself up and gone after his fumble. Pulling back not a good look with the game on the line.”
Steve Sailer writes: “…everybody in the NFL scrambles like a madman for a loose ball, well, except for Cam Newton in the 4th quarter (presumably he was hoping the ref would call it an incomplete pass if he just stood there and sulked).”
Comments to Steve Sailer:
* Folks forget that Saints Coach Sean Peyton famous ballsy move of a surprise onside kick to in the second half of 2009 season Super Bowl, would have been the “WTF” bonehead call of all time, if the Colts ST “hands specialist” Hank Baskett had the sense to hold onto the football he recovered until the whistle.
Instead the Saints won the Super Bowl, Sean Peyton became a genius coach, and Baskett went on to become a side car on his sex tape peddling, Playboy Bunny, F-Buddy of Hugh Hefner, former stripper, wife’s reality TV show.
* Americans like football because it’s the closest thing we get to war without actual killing. It also serves as a regional adhesive, bringing people together to support the local franchise (esp. in northern cities w/ lots of white ethnics.) There’s a ton of moving pieces, which, as we get smarter, we can appreciate them moving in precise movements in order to gain yardage. Nothing can be more American – conquering territory for one’s people.
One of the things that piss me off about the alt-right movement is it’s seeming hatred of sports in which blacks dominate. Dude, I am not gonna spend all day obsessing about my progeny’s loss of their country. I can still fight the good fight and enjoy a beer and a game. And, apparently, so can most Americans…you know, the one’s you’ll need to appeal to if you ever a chance to get your message out. So let’s take a step back, enjoy the sport for the awesome spectacle it is, note its flaws, and appreciate how it serves as the quasi national religion in a time when most people can’t agree on much, they can agree that the Super Bowl is the most American of creations.
* What I wanted Manning to say post-game: “We just wanted to keep the game close and give the Defense a chance to come out and win it.”
* Brian Tuohy has written several books about how pro sports are fixed. Writes a very interesting blog: http://www.thefixisin.net
Anyway, a few months ago he wrote “Manning is done. So he will be benched under the guise of an injury. Then he will come in as a back up and save the day. Then he will win the Super Bowl.”
* They coasted this year because they had an unusually soft schedule, they play in probably the third worst division in the league, ( The other 3 teams are bad ) and their in-conference and out-conference division match ups were against the worst and second worst divisions in the NFL, that accounts for 14 out of 16 games. The two games they played against good teams in the regular season were good teams that at the time they played them were decimated by injuries (Green Bay and Seattle).
They beat Seattle in the playoffs despite being shut out in the second half at home because Seattle put themselves in a 31-0 hole by the half and Seattle was down 21-0 before Newton did much of anything, the run game and defense got them that huge lead. They got an early lead against Arizona and Carson Palmer was playing with a bad index finger on his throwing hand so he was incapable of throwing deep against them and as many people have noted, Carolina has a very elite defense.
They knew that they way to beat Newton is hit him early and often, both Roethlisberger and Brady got the same treatment by them, but they didn’t fold like Newton did, trap him in the pocket and his accuracy fails and his ball sails on him. He really only makes a handful of good plays in most games, but the defense and the running game usually gave him a nice cushion because of the soft schedule.
* It’s easier to appreciate Manning when you watch the Newton post game press conference from tonight. Manning came up short in 3 Super Bowls and always faced the media and responded to their questions while Newton’s post game press conference was a joke tonight.
People will pick his play apart but that was one hell of a career and you get the sense that pro football players appreciate him more than the media/fans.
* The NFL got lucky, its still a team game where coaches and assistant coaches and defense matters. The NFL is not the NBA — where one supremely athletic player can dominate.
As noted, Newton is bad at making those touch passes. Many drops were because he threw the ball too hard. The Denver defense rushed, loaded up the line of scrimmage, and played man coverage daring Newton to beat them deep. He connected a few big plays, but not enough and not enough strung together to score more than 10 points.
Manning was the better quarterback. There is a reason Brett Favre, Bart Starr, Kurt Warner, etc. played so late in their career. QB requires a minimum level of athletic ability but the primary responsibility is reading defenses, changing plays at the line, and making those very quick touch passes that only the receiver can make, and can make with a defender draped across his back.
Newton has improved from where he was before, but he still emphasizes the easy stuff for him — taking off and running. And that’s fine until he runs into a defense that dares him to do what he can’t consistently do — make those soft touch passes which QBs like Manning, even with nerve damage, can do, let alone Brady, or Rodgers, or Roethlisberger. Yeah the NFL owners would rather pay an athlete like Newton $2 million a year for five years until his knees resemble RG3′s, and he’s replaced by the next model, as opposed to say $10 million a year for ten years to an athlete like Brady. But the Brady/Manning model is the only proven way to win Super Bowls.
And give credit to Manning — he changed his game from aggressive passer to conservative play action passer to let the defense and coaching staff particularly Wade Phillips win games. Newton has not shown that adaptability. I doubt he ever will — he’s coasted on his athletic ability his whole life.
* Let me add, the mighty Atlanta Falcons beat the Panthers in the regular season. I expect a big falloff for Newton next season, as he’ll be rushed, and the line of scrimmage stacked, until he proves he can beat that by making soft first down throws. Which I don’t expect him to do.
Hats off also to John Elway, who totally rebuilt the Broncos from an offense first team to one oriented around defense and spent money on top free agents for the offense. A big change from his whole football life oriented around offense.
* If Manning had any self-respect (or cared about his team) he would have pulled himself out of that game after the first or second quarter. The way Denver’s defense was playing, the score would have been in the forties something against 10 with Osweiler in the game. Manning put on one of the most cringe-worthy QB performances in SB history and yet his ego refused to do the right thing. Doesn’t say much for the guy if he earnestly believed him being out there was better for his team than Osweiller.
Newton follows in the long line of Great Black Hopes at the NFL QB position. This hybrid/passer/athlete nonsense has been going on for decades. Griffith and Kaepernick were only just a year or two ago being heralded as game changers and the rest. Before them it was Vick and Cunningham. We know why it’s still the favorite narrative out there, but most NFL fans see it for what it is and ignore it. It’s just too brutally true that white QBs, over the course of a career, outplay black QBs. More to the point, the money guys in the NFL must be secretly relieved that this is so. If most of the QBs weren’t white (and not just white, but unabashedly so with names like Dalton, Rodgers, Cutler, Palmer, Brady, Manning, etc) the NFL would no longer be the country’s favorite sport.
* The last time I saw officiating this blatantly rigged was a Spurs-Suns series about a decade ago, almost directly preceding the controversy/firing of an NBA ref for rigging games.
* Newton’s stats were a little better than Tom Brady’s 2 weeks ago against Denver. Adjusting for the nicer weather they were about the same. Denver has a really tough defense.
* As it was the 50th superbowl, the promoters obviously went out of their way to make it bigger, kitschier, cheesier, Americanier. A whole mixed service choir sang the lyrics of “America the Beautiful” to – apparently – some other melody. Lady Gaga sang the national anthem in some kind of mash-up of styles: Barbara Streisand and Whitney Houston. I’m kinda surprised she didn’t wear an outfit made entirely of bacon. The crowd cheered whenever they showed a bunch of poor chumps stuck in Afghanistan somewhere – yeah that makes me feel so patriotic – knowing that fifteen years after 9/11 we still have an occupation force in A-stan and likely will for (approximately) ever.
They should have just had “America! F**k Yeah!” blazing out of the jumbotrons, and President Camacho shooting off a SAW into the air while a hundred guitarists strummed out the opening bass-line of “I can’t go for that”.
* [Cam Newton] still made $20m in salary, roughly the same in endorsements, went 17-2, has a hot stripper girlfriend, and won offensive player of the year, and MVP…
So how was your year?
* Most alt-righters were virtue signalling that they weren’t watching the game, but lifting weights or something instead. Of course while most of them weren’t watching, they probably weren’t lifting weights either. They were probably surfing the internet.
* “They knew that they way to beat Newton is hit him early and often, both Roethlisberger and Brady got the same treatment by them,”
Not quite accurate. Ben’s offensive line held up quite well and he wasn’t rattled hardly at all, compared to NE (whose O’line, to be fair, was decimated due to injuries). But Newton completely had no idea what was coming. Remember, PIT didn’t have WR Antonio Brown and they led for 3.5 quarters. But that’s how it goes. But Ben wasn’t rattled much less pressured hardly at all by Denver because their O’line was the best of the three teams faced in playoffs/Superbowl.
I mean, Brock Osweiler could’ve won tonight with that defense supporting him.
Now that Carolina made the Super Bowl, they wont have an easy soft schedule next yr. so that will be the true test for how they perform.
* I think the Denver fans (and the rest of the Denver team) wanted to see whoever could assure them the win playing. Manning’s awful play made what need not been competitive, a game Carolina could have won easily if Newton had had a little more composure in the second half (the way he jumped away from trying to recover his own fumble at the end was almost unique). Denver’s offense had fewer yards than any winning SB team, just a bit more than half of Carolina’s, they were down 11 to 21 in first downs, the only offensive touchdown was off of another turnover caused by the Denver defense in the red zone. It was really an ugly game for Denver offensively. I think Osweiler couldn’t have done any worse and very likely would have done better.
And comparing Brady against Denver with Newton against Denver is revealing. Newton’s two fumbles led to both Denver touchdowns and were the difference in the game. Newton also got intercepted in the red zone. More to the point Newton looked baffled back in the pocket in the second half and was hesitant to run after taking a couple of nasty hits in the first half. I don’t remember any of that happening with Brady and I think he was punished about as much as Newton. Yet New England was in the game until the end. And of course Brady was at Denver (a notoriously tough place for visiting teams).
* Russell Wilson is the great black quarterback the media has been desperately hoping for 20+ years since the heyday of Warren Moon. In just a four year career, Wilson has won a Super Bowl, two NFC championships, and seven playoff games. Wilson has the discipline, intelligence, and self control of a good white man. Interestingly, his blackness was ignored during the two previous Super Bowls, unlike Newton. Also unlike Newton, there have been teammates questioning whether he is authentically black, and he has been mocked in the last year for his Christianity.
Blacks are capable of being championship QB’s. But they need to match their black athleticism with white intelligence and character. Even though the media could never admit it or even think it, the secret to black QB success is more oreos like Wilson. But those are incredibly rare, so we will continue to see over hyped black QB’s crash and burn.
Expect Wilson to dominate over the next decade as the great aging white QB’s retire.
* Peyton Manning’s QB rating was 57.4 in the Super Bowl. He didn’t play well at all.
* And that unambiguously white quarterback was also unambiguously over-the-hill to a painful extent. He went down to defeat to father time. It was his black teammates on defense and another even older white guy (Wade Phillips) who won this game.
* Wilson is under 6 feet, which is tough for an NFL qb. I root for him as an underdog in the Doug Flutie mode. I doubt if he could have eluded Von Miller tonight either, though.
Newton is a giant who is fast and strong-armed, perhaps the most amazing physical specimen ever at QB in the NFL, so he’s kind of fun as a Wilt Chamberlain-style heel-hero.
* Might there someday be a way to estimate all movies’ and tv-shows’ emotional intelligence, and use these ratings plus viewership stats to visualize the slow evolution of US/human social intelligence?
I’m starved for any hint that we as a species are getting smarter, which we surely must be (!?), but there’s a least-common-denominator paradox that makes it very hard to detect or measure.
It appears Americans are still overwhelmingly suckered by the war-on-terror military ‘patriotism’ hoax… but shouldn’t there be some measurable hints that increasing numbers of us are able to see thru it?
* Defensive pass rush is the key to Super Bowl wins. It’s been the defining element of the Super Bowl. Dolphins, Steelers, Cowboys, Raiders in 70s. Bears, Packers, Ravens, Giants, Bucs, Seattle, Broncos. No matter how good the QB is, the receivers will always need time to get open.
* I think the Snickers commercial was in part an inside Hollywood joke considering that Willem Dafoe has been said on numerous occasions to have a “confusingly large” penis for a man of his stature 5′ 10″.
The actress Dana Delany who dated both men got a lot of attention for commenting on several occasions that while Liam Neeson was obviously well known for his “large hands” he surprisingly had nothing on Dafoe.
Just Google “Willem Dafoe Penis” for all the Internet lore.
NPR’s Terry Gross even asked Dafoe if he attributed his willingness to do nude scenes to his obvious “comfort being in his own skin”.
Was the commercial in part an attempt at an edgy rebellion against folks having to knuckle under the whole WWT nonsense? I certainly hope so. After all testosterone challenge teenage boys love their Snickers.
The idea of Eugene Levy, the actor who became famous for the scene where he walks in on his son making love to an apple pie, having to be the one to looking up at Dafoe as Marilyn’s junk was a nice touch.
* I have to honestly second that comment about feeling a couple inches taller tonight, though of course, yeah, the Great Black QB Hope was demolished by an equally black Denver defense. But for decades serious historians have touted George Frasier as the champion of traditional values white America, while the much lighter-skinned Mahomet Ali was the representative of minorities and radicals, so how is this any more absurd? Finding, richly rewarding, and then shoving in our faces the most obnoxious and unsportsmanlike black sportsmen (a la Richard Sherman) is a favorite POZ hobby, and it would have been no different if Newton had won (sorry, Steve, no self-parodying Salon click-bait comparing a tired, out-to-pasture Manning to a tired, out-to-pasture Trump this year). And remember, a decade before you could be stripped of property due to illegally-recorded private conversations, it was already perfectly fine to lock you out of business opportunities for simply pointing out- a la Rush Limbaugh- the self-evident fact this WAS a favorite POZ hobby.
So, no, this is not important and the more cynical part of me almost suspects it to be a dumb distraction for the benefit of the powers that be. Heck, a Trump Presidency could be a dumb distraction by the powers that be if the Supreme Court ultimately rules any immigration restrictions unconstitional due to the 0th Amendment (“It’s not who we are.”). Still, I found this one nugget mildly amusing. In its write-up of the game, the NYT mentioned that with this win Peyton finally matched his little brother, who’s led the illustrious hometown Giants. If there is one undeniable truth in sports, it is that Eli Manning is by the far the worst quarterback ever to win 2 Super Bowls. So is the self-evident homerism in the TIMES’s implication that Peyton is just now worthy of Eli for real, or is it really trolling? As in- “Hey Joe Sixpack, we’re not the rootless, loyalty-leapfrogging cosmopolitan elitists they say we are. Just look at our absurd partiality to the hometown quarterback- we think he’s the peachie-est! So now that we’ve gotten that out of the way and established it’s nothing but us regular Joes here, let’s talk about amnesty for millions of Mexicans and Syrians. That would totally prove how exceptional America is, and how patriotic we are too. Because the only thing more patriotic than paying more Federal taxes is paying them in support of increased social services for Syrian refuges in order to prove how exceptional America truly is!”
* Russel Wilson may be 5′ 11″ but he has NBA Forward size hands combined with tremendous grip strength . The speedy Wilson has the unique ability to be able to run outside the pocket holding the ball in one hand and then throw it way downfield with out bringing his hands together to adjust his grip on the ball.
I don’t think I have ever seen a QB be able to do all what Wilson does consistently.
* Anyone else almost puke when they saw what a plastic surgery disaster the widow of the Bronco’s owner was? I don’t mean to be mean here, but that is the second worst botched plastic surgery I’ve ever seen.
* Osweiler would have been mauled by Carolina’s Defense and thrown a mess of interceptions
Osweiler won a few games until opponents started making an effort and figured out a way to game plan against him. Lots of physically talented young QBs have initial success but then struggle as defenses figure out their weaknesses. All great QBs are able to use their minds to help offset their limitations and counter specific defensive game plans.
Osweiler will have next year to show he is not another RGIII.
The best Colts team Manning ever had was in 2005. It struggled at the end of the season when Tony Dungy’s teenage son committed suicide. Still it was only a “Wide Right” from making the Super Bowl when it loss to the champion Steelers.
In 2009, Manning strapped a flawed Colts team on his back and would have been able to carry it to a perfect regular season while executing a record number of 4th quarter comebacks. Manning lost to a top seeded Saints team in a second half when the Colts pass rush collapsed due to Dwight Freeney with an already severely strained ankle and was no long longer able to pass rush Brees in the second half.
In 2013/14 was anybody going to able to stop the Legion of Boom.
All his career Peyton has been able to show that he is capable of calling plays that allow him to overcome injuries and advancing age. Few QBs can do that.
* Quicken’s Rocket Mortgage super bowl commercial seemed very political in that it spent a lot of time explaining why handing out mortgages in 8 minutes is Good for the Economy. I assume that was intended to persuade regulators and politicians not to crack down on Rocket Mortgages.
In contrast, the commercial about how you should take this pill if you have opioid-induced constipation was strikingly non-political. The message was: You are one of the millions who are scarfing opioid painkillers and a side effect is constipation so take our pill. There was no message to politicians about how the White Death is, when you stop and think about it, Good for the Economy.
* At a recent Academy Awards show, Lady Gaga came out in an elegant evening gown and sang a tribute of Julie Andrews songs in a tremendous voice, much to the surprise of us oldsters.
* Denver should put the trophy in Wade Phillips’ office. I thought he’d retired after Jerry Jones fired him. There’s also a lesson in there about knowing your limits. Phillips stepped back to DC and he gets to write his own history.
Manning is a QB in the old ‘field general’ style. So regardless of his lower numbers he still carries that team.
* I agree that Newton is the most physically impressive QB ever. A big problem is that he is a front runner, excessively happy/smiley when things are going well and a sulker when the going gets tough. The contrast to Brady, who went down to Denver like a warrior, is stark.
In Newton’s defense, Carolina’s personnel at WR and RB is below average. If he can mature and the talent around him is upgraded, he likely has 1-2 SB wins in him.
* Osweiler probably would have lost the Broncos the game. Peyton was mediocre at best last night but he didn’t lose them the game and that’s all that was expected of him. In that situation you want a veteran, like Dilfer, who isn’t going to make many dumb mistakes. Osweiler was making those mistakes as the season wore on and teams learned more about him.
Newton played bad last night. He missed open guys and proved that right now he only has Favre one speed passing. Plus he looked completely out of shape and winded. His failure to dive in the pile to go after the fumble is going to haunt his career for a long time. Plus Denver leveled enough hard hits on him that he seemed hesitant to run. Even the DB’s were flying in to get hits.
Except for the incomplete pass call that should have been overturned, I thought the calls for the game were fairly consistent.
Rivera is not a good game day coach. He wasted his second challenge (even though he won it) on a Denver incomplete pass just to get an extra negative seven yards. This with Denver already inside the 20 and not being able to move the ball.
* I thought the analysis by Simms during the game was overly timid. The drama of the game was whether Manning would lose it for his team by being on the field or by trying to throw the ball.
* Geeze, the guy is 39 years old. The amazing thing is that he continued to play at a high level of excellence (think 2 years ago) at an age when most players have long ago hung up their cleats. The same thing can be said about Tom Brady who continues to excel at 38. But you never know. In August 1961, the NY Giants acquired about-to-be-35 year old Y.A. Tittle from the San Francisco 49ers, where he had been an outstanding QB until replaced by the younger John Brodie. The Giants went on to have outstanding seasons in 1961, 1962 and 1963, and Tittle was the MVP each season. Suddenly, in 1964, the Giants went 2-10-2, the worst record in the league, and Tittle almost overnight (at age 38) turned dreadful and retired at season’s end. So, sudden loss of ability to play can happen to elite athletes when they reach their 30′s. While Peyton Manning’s falloff in skills as a result of age and injury may seem obvious to us, it is because we got used to such a high level of excellence from this truly great QB. I hope he makes the right decision and retires. Going out on top is really sweet. Ted Williams retired after hitting a home run in his last at bat, even though the season still had a game or two left, which he refused to play.
* The fact that the NFL has abandoned “the ground can’t cause a fumble” principle is a disgrace. These ambiguous and inconsistently applied new possession rules are a joke.
* Is it me, or did the Broncos have more left in the tank at the end? The two teams are pretty close in average age, (26.57 for the Panthers, 26.75 for the Broncos) but it seemed to me that the Broncos were fresher in the 4th quarter. Is it the training at altitude paying off at sea level?
Loved the booing of Brady. Is he officially a Bond villain now?
Speaking of Brady, Troofie, I’ll take his life; his high-powered, high earning supermodel wife trumps Newton’s high yella hoodrat baby momma; at least Brady’s baby momma is a highly-paid actress/model. And the 4 rings, of course!
For a New England fan, this was the perfect game. It proved that they were arguably two offensive line injuries away from being Super Bowl champions again, Newton gets a piece of humble pie big enough that it will take him the entire off-season to finish it off and Manning had less than nothing to do with the Denver victory.
Finally, the fumble and Newton’s disinterest in getting after it confirmed his punkness. Between that and his sullen schoolboy routine in his post-game “interview”, it’ll be interesting to see how the media, fully behind him all season, badgers him for explanations or gives him the AA pass.
* If you’re looking for a good laugh this morning, read this article from a few days ago.
An asshole is as an asshole, whether he’s white, black, yellow, or green.
I wanted the white guy to win, yes, but, above all, I wanted the asshole to lose. And I was very gratified when he did. I thoroughly enjoyed watching his cockiness melt away.
Dude needed a humility lesson, and he got one last night. He’s a big guy, but he needed to get cut down to size.
But who knows? Maybe next year he’ll win it all.
* I spend Super Bowl Sunday evening at the movies. Nobody is yakking on their phone during the film.
