Want to know just how powerful Cam Newton has become? Consider that he’s turning Super Bowl 50 into a physics lesson.
Because the most tossed around term in the runup to an anniversary edition of the biggest show in sports, hasn’t been a piece of football jargon at all. No, talk of slant routes, corner blitzes, and max protect packages has taken a back seat to something we all learned about when we played with magnets back in high school.
Polarity.
That’s been the roundtable debate of choice, from basically the moment the Panthers clinched their trip to the Bay Area. What makes Cam Newton so polarizing? Where does it stem from? Why does he provoke such strong reactions? But wait, isn’t he also widely beloved? What about the balls he gives to kids? Is he really that divisive? This is where we’ve finally arrived, the inevitable endgame of our one man, one take, everything’s an argument sports culture.
We’ve become polarized on the question of whether Cam Newton is polarizing.
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Cam Newton has, at various points leading up to Sunday’s ‘Big Game’, shared some thoughts on how he’s perceived, and then indicated that he’s done discussing the topic. This is, of course, his right not simply as an athlete, but as a grown adult. (That’s something that at least some reporters apparently need a refresher course on.)
But then, as we all learned this time last year, these guys have to talk about something, and so Cam decided to explain how he blocks out all the noise, and puts his spotlight to good use.
“I’ve said numerous times that I play to have a stage that people will listen to,” explained Newton, “and I pray to God that I do right by my influence. So when you ask me a question about African-American or being black and mobile, it’s bigger than that, because when I go places and I talk to kids and I talk to parents and I talk to athletes all over, and they look at my story and they see a person, African-American or not, they see something that they can relate to.”
Perhaps that’s the best way of thinking about Cam Newton. A person that many can relate to. A performer that few ever will.
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It has become quite clear over the last decade, Newton the athlete exists on an entirely different plane. Even when his makeup, his temperament, his preparation was being questioned, the raw, physical talent never was. How could it be? There’s simply no denying a man who’s bigger, and stronger, and faster than what’s come before, who appears to have maxed out all of his ability sliders, the clear next evolution of the quarterback position. There’s a reason why he can call himself “Superman” after all.
And this peerlessness has manifested itself throughout his career, even as he navigated through controversy. His infamous laptop theft in 2008, a mistake he’s talked openly and apologetically about in the years since, might have derailed the career of a lesser talent. Instead, Newton headed to Blinn Junior College, threw for 2,833 yards, ran for 655 more, won a Championship, and earned his way back to FBS football.
When he arrived at Auburn, it didn’t take long for an eligibility scandal to threaten an undefeated season. On November 30, the University declared the Heisman favorite ineligible, only for the NCAA to reinstate him one day later. And while all this was swirling, Newton was preparing for the SEC Championship, played just three days later. How’d he fare? Six total touchdowns, over 400 yards of offense, and a 56-17 rout over South Carolina. He followed that up, more than a month later, with 329 yards of total offense in a National Title Game victory.
And this season, amidst all the talk of dance celebrations, hurt feelings, stolen signs, letters to the editor, and changing racial paradigms, Cam Newton has just kept on playing football. The numbers speak for themselves: 3,837 yards passing, 636 more on the ground, 45 total touchdowns, and a quarterback rating of 99.2. And if that wasn’t enough, he’s managed to elevate his game in this year’s playoffs, with a completion rate of 70%, to go with a rather ridiculous 9.92 yards per passing attempt. Yes, in this postseason, Cam Newton has averaged a first down every time he’s dropped back to pass. The mind reels.
He may fall short of all of this on Sunday, fail to live up to the lofty expectations he has set with what will almost assuredly be an MVP season. But let there be no doubt, if Newton’s performance should suffer, it will be because he’s never faced a challenge quite like this one, with a ferocious pass rush, a sturdy secondary, and a lifer-coordinator who’s seen everything, coming together to form one of the most dominant defenses of the modern era. It won’t be because the pressure has gotten to him, he can’t handle the big stage, or that all the noise has overwhelmed him.
Please. If Cam Newton has proven anything, it’s that distractions don’t bother him, that he’s perfectly capable of tuning out all the noise, finding his comfort zone, and rising, once more to the level of the challenge before him. Considering that he’s now arrived at the biggest spectacle in American sports, we should all be eagerly anticipating what he has in store.
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On Wednesday, Newton was back in front of the media, and there were no more contentious exchanges with reporters about what he did, and didn’t, feel like explaining. This was a more traditional press conference, which is to say, focused on football, and chock full of cliches.
“It’s nothing different than any other game that we’ve played.”
“Fortunately for me I don’t have to face Peyton Manning… Everyone knows I respect (him).”
“We keep our personal business our personal business, and I think that’s important.”
“My main focus right now is the Denver Broncos.”
“For us, everybody knows their job.”
If that all sounds dull, and routine, and like something that we’ve heard a few hundred times before, well, for what it’s worth, Newton agrees.
“You know it’s confusing,” he said with his trademark smile after being asked, yet again, what it meant to be there, “How can I reword questions that I’ve been asked so many times? Golly, nothing pretty much has changed, since I saw you guys 24 hours ago.”
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For some, such a blunt assessment of the repetitive realities of Super Bowl week is probably a break from proper decorum. For others, it’s undoubtedly a refreshing bit of honesty. Is that “polarizing”? Who knows? It’s just life.
But Cam Newton appears to be all talked out, and who can blame him? It’s almost time to get back onto the field, where there isn’t much to argue about. He’s one of the best athletes in the world, he’s arrived at the highest level of his sport, and there’s a good chance that he’s going to run right through whoever stands in his way.
How do I know? Because force equals mass times acceleration.
You just can’t argue with physics.
