There are several things we know about Cam Newton: He’s a fantastic quarterback, he has fun playing the game and he’s a sore loser (he’ll admit that himself).
Now, does being a sore loser make him a bad quarterback, a bad guy? No, it makes him a sore loser. And that’s fine. Whether fans like sore losers, though, is another question, and the answer is almost always no.
We’re taught from Pee Wee and Little League to lose with grace, but for the vast majority of us, we never had to put that to the test on one of America’s biggest stages: the Super Bowl.
So, personally, I give Newton a pass, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like to see him squirm. And four months removed from the Super Bowl, he’s still squirming.
According to David Newton of ESPN, while Newton was answering questions at a celebrity kickball tournament on Friday, the reigning NFL MVP became a little agitated when he saw a woman taking photos with a Denver Broncos-covered cellphone:
Newton: “Whoa! whoa! whoa! Are you really aiming that at me?”
Newton paused, stared down the woman and said: “You! Come here!”
The woman stepped forward in front of the cameras.
Newton: “You’re really aiming that at me?”
Woman: “I’ll delete ‘em.”
Countered Newton, somewhat playfully: “No, delete the case.”
Denver beat Carolina 24-10 in Super Bowl 50. Newton didn’t have a very good game, if you remember, thanks in part to Broncos outside linebacker Von Miller.
Woman: “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Newton: “How long have you been in Charlotte?”
Woman: “I’ve been here six years. I lived in Denver for eight.”
Newton: “Six years. You’re a Charlottean. I’m the quarterback of the Carolina Panthers. It hurts me deeply that you have a Denver Broncos cover on.”
Woman: “But I was there every time you guys had the ball rooting [during the Super Bowl].”
Newton: “No you wasn’t.”
Woman: “I was. So torn.”
You have to wonder how “deeply hurt” he’ll be when he walks into Mile High Stadium on September 8 to a sea of orange and blue booing him from above.
Please, somebody, get this lady an autographed phone case or something!