Newton can, should learn from mistake

Published 12:05 pm Thursday, February 11, 2016

Cam Newton can overcome this.

Basically all he did after flopping on America’s biggest stage was pull a Bill Belichick in the postgame press conference.

Not good (although it looked and sounded like Belichick after a victory).

Too many eyes and ears.

For a good while, it will be our lasting memory of the best player in the NFL this year.

Something like this can become a players’ defining moment, and in this case Newton might have been better off if the signature moment had been the curious reluctance to jump in the scrum for one of his fumbles rather than the couple of words he mumbled afterwards.

America, more and more, can handle cockiness in its stars. But being surly just doesn’t play well from sea to shining sea.

Newton can move on from it.

He can rehabilitate his image.

He can still be the ever-smiling Face of the NFL that apparently the league has in mind for him — or did, at least, until Sunday night’s dark side put those plans on hold.

So Newton’s image can be salvaged.

It’s been done numerous times.

First, though, Newton has to admit he did something wrong — or at least that he didn’t handle a tough situation very well.

First, he has to learn from it.

The best he’s been able to come up with so far is the unrepentant cliché “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.”

No, that’s not it, Cam. And that old bromide has been scientifically disproved too many times.

Yeah, it’s great to be so competitive that you can’t stand losing.

It’s the athletic badge of honor.

“I’ve been on record as being a sore loser,” Newton said defiantly. “Who likes to lose?”

Nobody. But half the teams do it every week, and every year one does it in between Super Bowl commercials and great season goes down the tubes and you become the butt of jokes.

But there’s a way to handle it.

That wasn’t it.

Newton could take some lessons from his own teammates, the one’s he’s supposed to be the leader of.

His coach, Ron Rivera, for instance was all class.

The chatty star cornerback, Josh Norman, is best known in victory for trash-talking Odell Beckham into a one-game suspension. But he handled the biggest loss of his career the way an NFL pro should.

Newton?

Newton didn’t come off as a proud player crushed by a defeat. He didn’t even come off as a sore loser.

He came off as a spoiled little brat used to getting his way all the time who then runs off and pouts all night when he doesn’t get the extra cupcake.

“I’m human,” Newton said.

Gee, and we all thought he was Superman.

Maybe that’s the problem.

The nation spent the two-week break before the Super Bowl arguing about, and finally deciding that, even with a quarterback, if your uber dynamic personality can’t be bottled up, then by all means go with it in the celebration too.

It took a lot of soul searching — the race card, of course, came into play — but by kickoff it had been pretty well agreed upon that, Cam, you gotta be you, and go for it.

He was all ready to be Magic Johnson, only with a slight hint of an edge to him.

But there’s the problem.

You can’t symbolically pull back your shirt and flash the mega-watt smile to reveal and flaunt your inner Superman in victory and then curl up inside of your hoodie when things don’t go your way.

That part needs some work.

Nobody is suggesting that if he’s to be the face of the league that he has to “conform” and “change” his personality.

There’s not a checklist for such things. They’re not looking for Stepford Wives.

That bubbly Newton personality is part of the reason he’s the league’s Chosen One. The way he wears it on his sleeve only adds to it.

But there’s such a thing as being a professional athlete, a pro’s pro, so to speak.

And Newton needs some work there.

Don’t give him the out of it’s tough to answer questions in such trying situations.

That’s exactly why they’re getting the obscene bucks. Throwing a spiral doesn’t contribute that much to society; the fact that people go bonkers over and demand to hear all the intimate details is where those paychecks come from.

And that comes with a responsibility.

I wouldn’t give up on Newton just yet. He can still get there. There’s too much of an upside to that personality, let alone the football skills.

One day we may well be remembering how far a more mature Newton has come from that embarrassing press conference.

But only if he learns from it.

Carolina Panthers’ Cam Newton answers questions after the NFL Super Bowl 50 football game against the Denver Broncos on Sunday in Santa Clara

Marcio Jose Sanchez