The face of a generation?
A lot of silly things have been said about Cam Newton, especially since the NFL’s MVP dropped the ball Sunday and passed on trying to recover it (which we can say happened in that one play in the Super Bowl itself, and also in the broader sense of the aftermath of his Carolina Panthers’ loss).
The dumbest assertion identifies Newton as the poster child of the Millennials, which in its widest interpretation includes every American born from 1976 to 2004.
Doesn’t matter if X marks your spot, you’re a Baby Boomer, or even a member of the Greatest Generation. All of us were young once. Which means all of us at one time were lumped in with everybody else our age as the lazy, selfish kids with poor character matched only by our horrendous taste in music and attire.
“These kids today, they don’t know how good they have it …” I laugh and cringe because many of the people saying it now are my age.
Cam Newton is 26. Does he act like an enabled and arrogant 16-year-old? Yes, often. But to paint his entire generation as unaccountable, narcissistic, cowardly and childish because of his actions alone is ridiculous.
Here are just a few reasons: Russell Wilson, born 1988; Marcus Mariota, 1993; Deshaun Watson, 1995. There are millions of others, including all those anonymous young servicemen and women, some of whom must decide whether to dive on loose grenades, not footballs, for their buddies. But we’ll stick to these you might know of, who happen to be in Newton’s peer group of famous young quarterbacks.
The latter two don’t know (yet, anyway) what it’s like to be the losing quarterback in the Super Bowl. But Wilson handled it well last year, after throwing an interception that cost his team the game. Mariota and Watson were already known for uncommon maturity before losing the college playoff national championship game. If anything, their reputations as leaders were enhanced by that experience.
At age 39, Peyton Manning falls into Generation X. And I have no idea how that might correlate, other than we all agree he should now be an X football player.
In the run-up to the Super Bowl, the best storylines were all about the quarterbacks. Young vs. old, black vs. white, upstart vs. establishment. Once the game started, it wouldn’t have mattered which was on which team. Switch the QBs and the result is the same; that’s true in the Super Bowl more than you might think.
A few weeks ago when we were told Manning sulked over temporary demotion to backup, the narrative regarding Newton was how he was so beloved by teammates. If that took a hit by his unapologetic unwillingness to dive for that ball down 6 in the fourth quarter only they know. Tuesday’s adoring serenade indicates some equity for leading them to the Super Bowl.
In the end, the losing QB wouldn’t sell out for a fumble and the winner was eager to do so for Budweiser and Papa John’s. He did everything but sing, “We just won the Super Bowl,” to the tune of “Nationwide is on your side.”
Peyton Manning isn’t less self-serving than Cam Newton. He’s just much more experienced at it.
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.
