Cam Newton walks out of a press conference... What sounds like the beginning of a bad joke – and may end up being one – is being treated among the media as the most deadly serious news story EVER! Forget the Zika virus, or a presidential campaign that's occuring amid a tipping point for our nation. No, let's foucs ad nauseam on a 26-year-old who got a little testy after the biggest professional failure of his career.
Or not.
Sure, it doesn't look good when the NFL's reining MVP walks out of his post-game conference after being pummeled in the Super Bowl, and it's fair to call him immature and a sore loser. That's what he's acting like right now. But, turning the incident into "press-gate" and piling on the guy is a little much.
Newton dropped the ball. He messed up. Yet for some reason the NFL public is treating it like Tom Hardy's character treats Leo in "The Revenant" (hint: badly). It's not like Newton has a string of recent off-field incidents that suggest deeper and more troublesome issues. Hello, Johnny Manziel. It's not like Newton's play this year left us scratching our heads the way Robert Griffin's last appearance on the field did. And it's not like he's another Philip Rivers, a prickly guy who hasn't even sniffed a Super Bowl, but remains unskewered.
When Tom Brady gets into a shouting match with an opposing player, talking trash the cameras don't quite pick up, parents hold him up to their kids as an example of a "true competitor" They chalk his attitude up to a fiery passion for the game, listing it as one more reason he's one of the sport's greats.
So why treat Newton so differently?
Newton has behaved himself until now despite coming off as arrogant and self-entitled at times. But if that's the absolute worst thing we can say about the current/future face of the NFL, than we're in pretty good hands. LeBron James has gotten away with similar behavior for his entire career and that's worked out just fine for him and the NBA.
So Cam Newton walks out of a press conference...So what? How much longer until this becomes an LOL moment?
