Cam Newton has garnered so much attention after his poor performance in the Super Bowl, going only 18-for-41 and only totaling 310 yards as a whole both through the air and on the ground. That poor performance continued in the press conference when Cam Newton left after three minutes of questions in a huff and was seen leaving the stadium in his suit with a bowl of food in his hands afterward.
Vilify Newton if you must but understand that a lot of this scrutiny has been coming since his days in Auburn for his time with the Tigers after winning the National Championship and the Heisman in college. He was always the fastest, strongest and most dynamic athlete on the field and not only that but yes, he is black. And yes, he is a quarterback. All of these things have placed Cam Newton under a sports and social microscope that enhances every single detail of his life to the point that the moment the man puts on new socks the world will know of it and find a way to criticize him for it. And while some will say it is unwarranted, others say it is justified for someone who carries himself so much higher than others. The view I have on Newton is not one based on his race, not based on his talent. It is based on what I can tell about his mindset.
Newton during the last two weeks described himself as an African-American quarterback that scares a lot of people because no one has ever seen anyone like him. There is no comparison for the kind of player Cam Newton is according to the man himself. But when someone says there is no comparison, it immediately brings one up. This can be for politicians and actors as well as athletes. History always tends to repeat itself and I tend to see one repeating here with Cam Newton.
I remember watching Newton during his days backing up Tim Tebow at the University of Florida before transferring to Auburn and immediately I knew who he reminded me of with subtle differences. The name Randall Cunningham came like a bolt of lightening watching him progress as a Tiger and in his first years in a Panthers uniform. The two in their early years were both described as pure runners at quarterback. Cunningham in his early career would run and run often as he never rushed for fewer than 500 yards outside of his rookie season in 1985 and passing he would not reach his first 3,000 yard season until his fourth year with the Eagles. But when Cunningham was on, he was a force to be reckoned with and it showed in 1990.
I would say that 1990 is the greatest season by a quarterback that didn’t win the Super Bowl outside of Tom Brady’s record setting campaign that ended in 2009 against the Giants that cost him and the Patriots an undefeated season. Cunningham in ’90 threw for 3,466 yards to a group of no name receivers, much like Newton did this season, and almost ran for 1,000 yards with an astonishing 942. Cunningham took the MVP trophy home that year and sadly did not make a trip to the Super Bowl as he never attained that chance to play on the biggest stage in his career. But the comparison between Newton and Cunningham really ends with their skill set, as the mental aspect is where the two drastically differ.
Admittedly I was only able to watch Cunningham in the twilight of his Eagles career as I was born in 1993 and his last year as a member of the Eagles came in 1995. He spent a year out of football because no one thought he had enough left in him to play after years of injuries and an ACL tear that he never truly bounced back from thanks to a low hit from Bryce Paup in the season opener in 1991, the year after his MVP. Some in Philadelphia believe that was the year the Eagles were going to win a Super Bowl and they may have been right. But fate rarely is so generous as to give a city something they feel they deserve. And Cunningham deserved at least a chance to play in the Super Bowl. Yet a year away from the game awakened something in the mind of Cunningham that has yet to be tapped in Newton.
To quote NBA analyst and former Vikings wide receiver Ahmad Rashad, “There is a time to play, and then there is a time to win. What you do in winning time separates the average player from the superstars.” It was Rashad’s old team that brought on Cunningham to back up an aging statue of a quarterback in Brad Johnson who was injured early on in the year and opened the door to Cunningham. Rather than let the moment capture him and just take it in stride, the former MVP showed the football world just how much strength he had left in his arm. His scrambling was gone, only rushing for 132 yards that year, but he didn’t need to run. His 34 touchdowns and 3,704 passing yards turned the 35-year old man into a 1st-team All-Pro again. It was this reaction to the challenge that hasn’t been instilled in Newton yet I feel and one play in particular says that by my estimation.
Nearing the end of the game, the Panthers were down a touchdown with just over three minutes left on a third down and Newton is hit. The ball popped loose. Rather than diving on the ball and hoping for a chance on fourth down with the game on the line, he instead takes what looked like a step back and tried to let his teammates recover it instead. The ball pops out and rolls behind him and is recovered by the Broncos who then clinch the win with a final rushing touchdown. That apparent lack of effort in what was clearly “winning time” showed the key difference between Newton and Cunningham. Cunningham at 35 would have dived for the ball and the chance to have one last play. Newton at the ripe age of 26 instead to lived to play another game.
It has nothing to do with his race. It has nothing to do with his character. It has nothing to do with his talent. It has everything to do with his heart. Newton is a phenomenal player, a statistical superstar. A sure first round fantasy player. But as a face of the franchise on a real life football team and none of these pun-filled office pool teams, he has still something lacking to him. When the going got tough, Newton chose to step back rather than dive in with his team’s hopes resting on his hands to cradle the ball back in.
Newton wanted to “dab on them folks” in the Super Bowl and instead was pressured, hit and bullied in the pocket. He was slammed and cracked and bruised by the relentless pressure of the Broncos. Cunningham was hit over 450 times in his NFL career, including a disgusting 72 sacks in his second year in 1986. Yet all that wear and tear on his body still didn’t make Cunningham think about living to fight another day. He fought to keep the play alive and keep his team alive.
There are always other athletes to compare athletes of today to. It won’t ever line up perfectly to the point where they are mirror images of the other though. There is always that subtle difference. It doesn’t have to be race. It doesn’t have to be skill set. Sometimes it is just that desire and the fire to succeed and challenge the opposition when a worthy opponent arrives. The Broncos proved they were worthy. Newton for one sixty minute performance, proved that he however was not. For his sake, I hope to see him in another Super Bowl to see if he can develop that killer instinct and succeed where so many before him have failed. For there are two categories of Super Bowl participants that no one remembers. The team who only wins it once, and the team who loses the game. Only time will tell if we forget about Cam Newton, but for better or worse we won’t forget the way he carried himself and his approach to the biggest game of his life.