As the clock expired on yet another Super bowl, eager fans watched as Peyton Manning took his rightful place as a champion. The confetti rained down and the winners were allowed to enjoy the moment;, however, the losers had to wallow in their sadness. As the time ticked, reporters rushed to get the scoop straight from the player’s mouths. For the past week or so the only interview that mattered was the one given by Carolina Panthers quarterback, Cam Newton.
If you have no idea what I am talking about, I’ll give you a recap. Cam Newton sat down to give his interview and, after a couple of minutes, left in a haste. Multiple reasons have been given as to why he left: some have reported that he could hear a Denver Broncos player talking about how they stopped him while others just left it at the fact that he is childish. So, for the last week people have been analyzing what he should have done and how he should have had more composure.
The way Cam Newton reacted was understandable. The game of football is passionate, to say the least, and the way a young player like Cam Newton plays it exemplifies this. He wears his heart on his sleeve and leaves every emotion out on the field. That’s what made watching him fun: he was fresh and exciting, he wasn’t composed, and he was human. Yet, that very reason is why we are hanging him in the court of public opinion.
When did it become a bad thing to be passionate? Why are we so quick to judge someone if they show a little emotion? People were quick to judge, vilify, and even demean Cam as soon as he admitted the truth and did something they didn’t like. The fact that he wore his emotions on his sleeve was pretty damning to us as a society. I just need to remind everyone of one simple fact. The guy had just lost the biggest game of his life no more than 20 minutes before we decided to stick cameras in his face. Personally, as a competitive person, I can fully understand him not wanting to talk because every loss weighs heavy on you as an athlete. The fact that he actually sat down to the interview at all is a testament that he has some level of composure, but I guess that isn’t good enough for people today.
The entire situation is reminiscent of the Richard Sherman situation a couple of years ago. Remember when he made a game-saving play and got a little too excited during his post game interview (and by post game I mean five minutes after the game ended). People basically lambasted him too, but it was another example of someone just being passionate. So why do we get offended?
Honestly, I think it’s because we don’t like the idea of people breaking our images of them. Think about it when Cam and Richard broke the look of being the calm, fun-loving guy and were slightly louder and more aggressive. It shatters our view.
The beautiful thing about the sport of football is the fact that people get to show a wide range of emotions. We ruin it when we don’t let the players have fun and be emotional. We pigeonhole certain players as bad guys and others as good guys. Whenever a player breaks out of that box and shows anything that doesn’t agree with our view of them we immediately vilify them. Well, I can’t do that anymore. I refuse to do that anymore. From here on out we need to allow.
