The Carolina Panthers Wednesday media availability at Super Bowl 50 had a common theme: The players seemed tired of the media and literally tired as well. It was a lethargic bunch, led by QB Cam Newton who delayed his media session about as long as he possibly could.
#SB50: VIDEO: @panthers QB Cam Newton taking his sweet, sweet time walking to the podium. pic.twitter.com/T9xwxK8ufp
— Mile High Sports (@MileHighSports) February 3, 2016
Newton wasn’t in a particularly good mood, telling the media, “Nothing has changed since I (saw) you guys 24 hours ago.” Yes, the guy is getting similar questions each day, but parts of his personality that rub people the wrong way were apparent on Wednesday. There was more than a touch of arrogance on display, as evidenced in the video above and during the press conference.
After Newton spoke, the rest of the Panthers were available in a large conference room, and many didn’t seem too eager to talk about the game. So, I decided to have a little fun.
I asked several Panthers players if they could guess the year Broncos QB Peyton Manning was born (1976). The answers were all over the map.
Panthers defensive end Kony Ealy couldn’t even muster up a guess, pausing for several seconds before coming up with this: “I really just have no idea off the top of my head right now.”
Carolina running back Cameron Artis-Payne took the question very seriously, thinking about his answer for quite some time. Each ellipses in the following quote represents about ten seconds of long, deep thought.
“Let’s see…nineteen…seventy…no, 1981,” Artis-Payne said. After being told the answer he was clearly disappointed and added, “I was going to go in the seventies!”
Panthers 2015 first round pick Shaq Thompson guessed 1980 and was bummed after finding out he wasn’t right. “I was only four years off! I was going to go in the seventies but I was trying to give him more credit than that. I didn’t want to age him too much,” Thompson said.
Carolina wide receiver Devin Funchess was quite confident in his answer (twice) before I had to motion with my hand he needed to keep guessing lower and lower. “He was born in 81. He was born in 79. Dang! When was he born? 78? 77? 76? Yes!,” Funchess said when finally arriving at the correct year.
Stephen Hill, a Panthers receiver who’s on injured reserve, was sitting with Funchess and after hearing Manning was born in 1976 declared him a grandpa.
“Oh yeah? That’s crazy! Damn! That’s like a grand daddy!,” Hill said.
For the record, Manning’s twins Marshall and Mosely, were born in 2011. Common sense and pure biology say he’s a long way away from being a ‘grand daddy’.
Ealy (1991), Artis-Payne (1990), Thompson (1994), Funchess (1994) and Hill (1991) of course didn’t see the seventies or the eighties, but not one of them got within four years of Manning’s age. The generational gap between the majority of the players (on both rosters) and Manning is pretty crazy, but just because it’s likely The Sheriff’s last rodeo this weekend Carolina isn’t holding anything back.
“It’s just a business trip. We’re not here to take someone out on their last legs or nothing like that and rain on his parade, but we came here to win and get that trophy,” Funchess said.
After being told of the possible ‘Disney movie’ ending for Manning and the Broncos, Artis-Payne didn’t mince his words. “Not all these happy movies end the same way. We came here to win. We’re not worried about nobody’s sendoff or anything like that,” he said.
Of course the Panthers came to Santa Clara to win, but so did the Broncos, and everyone loves a happy ending.
We’ll see if the ‘grand daddy’ Peyton Manning gets his on Sunday.