during Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium on February 7, 2016 in Santa Clara, California.

Cam Newton faced the media on Tuesday in the Carolina Panthers locker room, speaking for just under seven minutes about why he didn’t talk after the Super Bowl, why he didn’t dive for the ball on the fumble that sealed the win for the Denver Broncos, and what he thinks about what people—read: media—think about him.

This is not Marshawn Lynch showing up so he won’t get fined. This is the newly-minted NFL MVP handling his league-negotiated media responsibilities like, as he put it, a sore loser.

And he’s okay with that. Newton is okay with all of it, telling reporters on Tuesday, “I’ve been on record saying I’m a sore loser. Who likes to lose? You show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FphWK8ApteY

“I ain’t got no more tears to cry,” Newton started, doing his best to explain his feelings after the game and how he’s more eloquently describing what he thought then, now.

“We got all these people that’s condemning and saying, ‘oh man he should have done this that and the third,'” Newton said, “but what makes your way right?”

Pardon the potential overstatement here, but this sure as heck feels like this generation’s “I am not a role model” moment. Only this isn’t a Nike ad trying to get attention, it’s a guy who is great at what he does, who wants to be loved and lauded for all the good things he does in the community and with his team, but seems fed the hell up with being called a thug because he wears a towel on his head and doesn’t answer some questions.

“I’ve never once said that I was perfect. I never claimed that I was perfect, but at the end of the day, people pick and they do things of that sort, and the truth of the matter is, who are you to say that your way is right? That’s what I don’t understand.”

Now, the guy does run around wearing a Superman shirt, so the perfection he exudes may be implied, but Cam is about as real and as raw as it gets in the corporate world of NFL quarterbacking, and he’s quite happy with you taking that, or leaving it.

“I said from day one I know what I’m capable of. I know what I’m capable of and I know where I’m going. I don’t have to conform to anybody else’s wants for me to do. I’m not that guy. If you want me to be this type of person, I’m not that. And I’m happy to say that.”

Super Bowl 50 - Carolina Panthers v Denver Broncos
“This league is a great league with or without me, I understand that. I am my own person.”

He addressed what happened when he blew off reporters, right after the game, but certainly didn’t apologize, which in a way, is kind of refreshing.

“It happened. It happened,” Newton explained. “I don’t want to talk to the media at that time, and the truth of the matter I really still don’t want to talk to the media. But at the end of the day, things has to happen. I had a lot of time to go back and, you know, play everything back and like I say, I’m human.”

Newton wasn’t all right. He claimed the NFL isn’t a popularity contest, which, sure he’s there to win games, but the guy was just voted MVP by a near unanimous tally. That vote, by definition, was a popularity contest, no?

He talked about why he didn’t dive for the fumble, and while his answer wasn’t great, both his coach and his teammates have his back on that. He claimed something about his body contorting in the wrong direction before turning it into people questioning his dedication.

And then he went back to the “thug” well. Hard.

CHARLOTTE, NC - JANUARY 03:  Cam Newton #1 of the Carolina Panthers takes the field against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Bank of America Stadium on January 3, 2016 in Charlotte, North Carolina.  (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
(Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

“The truth of the matter is, nobody on this team got suspended for disciplinary reasons. You never once heard of anybody on this team who had to sit out games because of what they did. You never heard coach or a coordinator say these guys wasn’t coachable. Pretty much everything people say about us is fluff. They say Cam’s a thug, they say players on the team are classless. Straight up, we are professional athletes. Like I say, before you are quick to assume anything, what makes your way right?”

This was another ‘real’ moment in a week full of them for Newton. He has been humbled, clearly, by the loss and by all the backlash. Let’s just hope “what makes your way right” doesn’t end up on an Under Armour shirt by tomorrow.

Who are we kidding, it probably already has.

About Dan Levy

Dan Levy has written a lot of words in a lot of places, most recently as the National Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. He was host of The Morning B/Reakaway on Sirius XM's Bleacher Report Radio for the past year, and previously worked at Sporting News and Rutgers University, with a concentration on sports, media and public relations.

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