Cam Newton has received a ton of heat for the way he handled his postgame press conference after the Super Bowl, and New York Jets wide receiver Brandon Marshall feels that the criticism is warranted.
On the season finale of Showtime’s “Inside the NFL” Tuesday night, Marshall pulled no punches when discussing Newton.
“When I saw his comments after the game, the first thing I did, I just dropped my head,” Marshall said, per Darryl Slater of NJ.com. “I was like, ‘No!’ Because you lose, and you can’t do that. For me, I think that whoever is in his corner, they’re not telling him the right things.”
Newton spent just a few minutes with the media before abruptly leaving. If you have not seen the video, you can watch it here.
Marshall knows a thing or two about sparring with the media, which is why he feels Newton is heading down a dangerous path if the Panthers quarterback can’t deal with the “game with the media.”
“I don’t think it has anything to do with [Newton lacking] humility,” Marshall said. “When I look at Cam, I see a guy that’s in a lot of pain. This hit him really hard. Last year, I struggled with the Chicago media. If I handled the media like a Drew Brees, I would still be in Chicago. There’s no doubt in my mind. That’s 50 percent of this NFL. When you look at Cam Newton, what makes him great is all of those emotions, that passion. But now, that emotion, that passion is hurting him.
“Everything Cam Newton feels is valid. And I think almost every single guy in the National Football League that’s playing now — or who came through the league — they felt the same way. But you do not win versus the media. You can’t win that battle.”
Some people feel that Newton was justified in the way he acted because he supposedly heard a Broncos player talking about him, but that’s no excuse. He and his teammates played poorly in the biggest game of the season, and part of being a leader is standing up there and answering for it. Newton failed to do that.
