Deion Sanders lights up Cam Newton: ‘You can’t do that’

Moments after the Super Bowl ended, Cam Newton suffered through a disastrous press conference of his own making, keeping every answer short and not sticking around very long. That didn’t sit very well with some NFL elders discussing the issue on NFL Network afterward.

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“You are the face of our brand right now, you can’t do that,” Deion Sanders said after the game. “I understand the emotions of losing, but you can’t do that. A Manning, a Brady … all these guys who are a prototypical type of quarterback in our game, they’re not going to do that ever. Would Drew Brees ever?”

Sanders continued.

“You’re opening yourself for more criticism,” he said. Because everybody is going to say you’re dabbing and smiling and smiling and styling. So this is how you go out when you lose?” Cam Newton (AP)

Marshall Faulk, who knows the pain of losing a Super Bowl, tried to put Newton’s sour attitude in perspective and staged a nice debate with Sanders that made for good television.

“I’ve been on that podium in that very same seat. It’s tough, it’s hard,” said Faulk, whose Rams fell to the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVI. “When I look back at how I handled it, I promised to never be that person again. Cam is going to learn from this.

“Losing is hard. You can go talk to whoever you want, until you’ve lost this game and sat on this stage … you have no idea what that feels like to get peppered with questions about how your played or how your team played.”

The conversation halted quickly when Aqib Talib crash-landed on the stage, but this is a topic that won’t be going away anytime soon. Just don’t expect Michael Irvin to weigh in with any amount of perspective.

“I’ve never lost in a Super Bowl so I can’t empathize,” the former Cowboys receiver said in a brief moment of levity.