Cam Newton finds out Super Bowl foe: ‘Oh wow, playing The Sheriff’

Either Cam Newton is a pretty good actor, or he found out on live television who he and the Carolina Panthers would be facing in Super Bowl 50.

Newton told Fox’s Chris Myers during an interview on the field right after the Panthers’ 49-15 NFC championship game win over the Arizona Cardinals that he didn’t know who won the AFC championship game, which had finished about four hours earlier. Myers informed him that the Denver Broncos had won. At that point Newton broke into a smile, as he considered playing Peyton Manning in his first Super Bowl, and then referred to Manning by his nickname.

“Oh wow, playing ‘The Sheriff,'” Newton said.

This guy is good to go through his entire game and never figure out what happened in the AFC game. Newton probably doesn’t even know that at the end of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” that (SPOILERS RETRACTED).

Tennis player Victoria Azarenka asked during her post-match interview at the Australian Open if the Broncos won, and she was clearly pleased by the answer:

It was also a fun moment to see Newton’s first reaction. Even though Newton is a big star himself, and will likely win his first MVP award in a little less than two weeks, it appeared that Newton thought it was pretty cool to be playing someone as well respected as Manning (it would have been even better if the AFC game was last and Manning responded to the same question by saying, “Oh wow, playing ‘Superman'”). It is a great quarterback contrast in this season’s Super Bowl, with the young rising star in Newton facing 39-year-old Manning in what might be the five-time NFL MVP’s final game.

And if the Panthers can pull off the win and finish the season as the NFL’s first 18-1 champion in 30 years, that will be a clear sign that there’s a new sheriff in town.