Ron Rivera again defends Cam Newton’s post-Super Bowl press conference
There’s a reason Ron Rivera’s Carolina Panthers players love playing for him. If you need an example of why, look to Wednesday morning, when Rivera gave an impassioned response at the NFC coaches breakfast at the NFL annual meetings when asked about Cam Newton’s post-Super Bowl 50 behavior.
Newton has been roundly criticized for cutting his interview short and leaving the podium, even after it became clear that Newton overheard Denver Broncos’ Chris Harris boasting about how his team’s defense went after Newton, the victor and the defeated separated by just a few feet and maybe a thin curtain.
“What do you expect? He’s 25,” Rivera told reporters at the Boca Raton, Fla. resort the league’s owners, coaches and executives have gathered this week. “Everything he’s ever wanted to be, he had that opportunity and he didn’t get it. And he’s so hurt by it, he’s crushed by it. I mean, he put it all on himself. He took it for 52 other guys and coaches. And that’s a huge burden to bear because everything he wants to be is that winner, that guy that helps us get it. That, to me, is really the way I looked at it.”
While the easy answer to avoid a situation like Newton had, overhearing Harris, is to do a better job separating the media areas the teams use after the Super Bowl, Rivera took things a step further and suggested that players on the losing team shouldn’t have to talk in the immediate aftermath of defeat, instead being allowed to wait a day or two.
Rivera pointed to a generational difference in how athletes now behave.
“These are millennials, these are young men and women athletes that are being brought up in a different way and we need to learn to adapt to the way they are,” he said. “These are young people that express themselves. When he’s happy, he’s going to express himself, when he’s sad he’s going to express himself too.
“So I think we just need to accept, understand or at least anticipate we’re not going to get him at his best.”
(Newton received plenty of criticism for the way he expressed himself when he was happy too, so he’ll never be able to win over some folks.)
When reporters told Rivera that Newton should act like a professional regardless of circumstances, Rivera understood the sentiment. He believes, however, that media coverage of Newton does not give a true reflection of who he is, bringing up the extensive work the quarterback does in the community.
“Nobody understands those things or celebrates those things. But do something wrong, slip up, don’t be the person everybody wants you to be and everybody gets upset,” Rivera said. “How about understanding who he is? Spend a week with him and be in his shoes for a week and see what it’s like. It’s hard. I promise you, it’s hard.”
Himself a former player, Rivera noted that other superstar athletes, like LeBron James, struggled to publicily deal with adversity early in their careers as well, and brought up another NBA icon as well.
“Think about Jerry West and the way he was and how much of a bad loser he was. I mean, Mr. West was one of the most tremendous athletes ever but yet he struggled with losing,” Rivera said. “So let’s all take a second to really think about this is not a unique set of circumstances. This is the true raw emotion of who he is. Let’s celebrate that, too. Let’s not pile on.”
Newton likely already knew his coach had his back, but Wednesday offered another example of how passionately Rivera will defend his star QB.
