Over one hundred million people watched the biggest sporting event of the year Sunday night, the Super Bowl 50. The annual championship of America’s most popular sport was between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos.
Going into the game, the focus was centered on a couple important story lines. The most compelling being the likelihood that this will likely be the 5-time league MVP’s last game. This game held great significance beyond the regular Super Bowl. Not only would the win cement Manning’s legacy, but it also gave Manning 200 career wins–which is the most ever. This number passed Brett Favre’s 199.
That surely happened as the Broncos came out on top 24-10. While Manning is the most memorable player in this year’s game, it was Von Miller and the Broncos’ defense that ultimately won the game for Denver. Von Miller had six tackles, 2.5 sacks and two forced fumbles, one of which left to a defensive touchdown. Miller would take home the Super Bowl MVP trophy, the fourth defensive player to do so.
Carolina struggled all around on offense. They turned the ball over four times, including three fumbles. They struggled all night against the top defense in the NFL. Recently crowned League MVP Cam Newton truly struggled as he completed 18 of 41 passes for 265 yards and no touchdowns. He threw one interception and was sacked six times.
This was also the fourth Super Bowl in a row that a former Mississippi State Bulldog was on the winning team, with Dillon Day playing for the Denver Broncos.
Overall, it was your average Super Bowl. One team jumped out early and never let go.
However, it won’t be the Broncos’ big win talked about on the news. It will be Panther’s quarterback Cam Newton’s response to adversity. The saying goes that you see one’s true colors when they face adversity for the first time. Well, if this was Newton’s true colors, they are not a pretty combination.
Newton was under a lot of scrutiny going into the game. He was a fun loving player who seemed to enjoy the game– nice change of breath from the average monotone, robotic answer quarterbacks. 
However, where some like myself saw a young guy bringing personality back to football, others saw someone who only wanted attention (calling him names like “attention whore”), and was only looking out for ways to draw the spotlight.
On Sunday night, Newton gave the “attention whore” camp a lot of fuel for their fire. His attitude was completely unacceptable. He walked in his post-game presser and gave short, almost whispered answers that were mostly comprised of one word and then promptly walked out.
I get that he just lost the biggest game of his career and that he really didn’t want to be there. However, it does not excuse his attitude. For someone who has an extremely troubled history, he can’t have pressers like Sunday night.
During his presser, he acted like a spoiled brat. Newton was not the charitable, fun loving player his defenders, including myself, make him out to be. While the latter might still be the case, it would be hard pressed to make an argument for it after Newton’s response to the loss Sunday night.
Newton will have to answer for his attitude at some point, along with his lack of effort on a pivotal play in the fourth quarter (when he was stripped and seemed to just stand there instead of diving on the football as it rolled on the ground). This turned what should have been an easily recoverable fumble by Newton, into a game sealing turnover for Denver.
The moral of the story is, even multimillionaires may have some growing up to do. Everyone does, and it is disappointing that the way this Super Bowl will be remembered is as a time when a sore loser’s true colors were fleshed into light.
Overall, the biggest loser is not the Carolina Panthers, but Cam Newton.