Newton could learn a thing or two from Watson
By: will-vandervort February 8, 2016

For nearly 20 minutes Deshaun Watson stood by his locker and talked with the media following last month’s loss to Alabama in the National Championship Game. Keep in mind, this came after he spent at least 10 minutes or so answering the same questions in a joint press conference with head coach Dabo Swinney and offensive guard Eric Mac Lain.

Reporters asked everything that happened in the game, from the Clemson quarterback’s record-breaking night, to the interception he threw in the second quarter that set up an Alabama touchdown, to the special teams’ blunders that cost the Tigers a National Championship.

To this point it was the biggest game of his football career, and Watson handled losing with every bit as grace and with class as he has in winning.

I don’t know if I can say the same for Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. Granted, the last week has been a tough one for the NFL’s Most Valuable Player. He has had to deal with the scrutiny for his actions following touchdowns and for his flamboyant personality.

This season, I have been an apologist for Newton and I will continue to be in regards to those things. He is just a young man having a little fun in a game that is about having fun.

But what has disturbed me since Sunday night’s loss to Denver in Super Bowl 50 is the way in which Newton handled defeat. If you don’t know by now, he pouted and acted like a little baby during his press conference with the media—giving mostly one-word answers—before finally walking off the stage two and a half minutes into it.

I watched the press conference on NFL.com. I was not there to see how the press conferences were set up. I read both the Denver and Panthers’ players were in the same room and Newton heard something a Denver defender said about dominating the Panthers’ quarterback, and that is what prompted him to walk out.

Granted, I can understand him hating to hear something like that, especially after losing and playing the way the Panthers’ offense did in the biggest game of his young professional career. But regardless, he has to handle himself better than that.

I know some out there will stick up for Newton and say, “There are much worse things NFL players have done than what Newton did,” and they are right. That isn’t my argument, and that does not excuse Newton’s behavior in the least.

Newton has to understand he is a public figure. Little boys and girls for that matter, look up to him. He is a role model of sorts. From the time we begin playing sports our parents have taught us how to act when we win and how to act when we lose.

When I was younger, I hated to lose. But I learned how to deal with it. Yes, I never played in and lost a Super Bowl, and I never will. But I played in what I considered to be big games for me. I lost some, and I was the reason in some cases why my team lost. It was hard, but in each of those cases I remember my stepfather’s words on how I needed to handle myself in defeat.

In today’s world when so many little boys are growing up without a father, they look up to athletes and celebrities like Newton as role models. Whether we like it or not, that is a fact. They imitate their actions.

Look, I like Cam Newton. He has done a lot of good things for young people, and since turning things around after the Florida debacle, he has been a very good influence for little kids everywhere. He made a mistake last night, and that’s okay because we have all made mistakes. But I hope in the days to come he comes out and apologizes for the way he handled himself. That’s the mature thing to do. That is the way a mature man would handle himself after he made a mistake.

Newton could probably learn a thing or two from Watson.

If you haven’t already order your copy today of Guts & Glory – Tales of Clemson’s Historic 2015 Football Season to help you celebrate and remember this special season.

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