{"id":24883,"date":"2016-02-10T09:04:04","date_gmt":"2016-02-10T17:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/newton-defends-actions-i-will-not-conform\/"},"modified":"2016-02-10T09:04:04","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T17:04:04","slug":"newton-defends-actions-i-will-not-conform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/newton-defends-actions-i-will-not-conform\/","title":{"rendered":"Newton defends actions: ‘I will not conform’"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTE, N.C.<\/strong> \u2014 Cam Newton isn\u2019t apologizing for acting like a \u201csore loser\u201d after the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

The league\u2019s MVP has been widely criticized for walking out of a three-minute press conference after a 24-10 loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday in which he answered questions with mostly one- and two-word responses while sulking in his chair wearing a black Carolina Panthers hoodie over his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cShow me a good loser and I\u2019ll show you a loser,\u201d Newton said Tuesday as players cleaned out their lockers at the team\u2019s downtown stadium.<\/p>\n

Newton said he believes the situation is being overblown by the media, and added he doesn\u2019t plan to change how he reacts to losing just to appease his critics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I offended anybody that\u2019s cool, but I know who I am and I\u2019m not about to conform nor bend for anybody\u2019s expectations because yours or anybody\u2019s expectations would never exceed mine,\u201d Newton said.<\/p>\n

The quarterback went on to say, \u201cWho are you to say that your way is right? I have all of these people who are condemning and saying this, that and the third, but what makes your way right?\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point during Newton\u2019s nearly seven-minute interview, his teammates walked behind the media gathered three-deep around his locker and starting saying, \u201cWe love you, Cam,\u201d and even sang him a song lightning the mood.<\/p>\n

Newton said his emotions were raw after the game and he simply didn\u2019t want to talk to the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you invest so much time and sacrifice so much and things don\u2019t go as planned, I think emotions take over,\u201d Newton said. \u201cI think that is what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panthers coach Ron Rivera said while he prefers his fifth-year quarterback would have handled the situation a little better, he understands where he is coming from and what he felt at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s who he is. He hates to lose, that\u2019s the bottom line,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cThat is what you love in him. I would much rather have a guy who hates to lose than a guy who accepts it. The guy who accepts it, you might as well just push him out of your locker room because you don\u2019t want him around.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a beauty of a guy like that \u2014 he wants to win and his teammates know it. That is what it is about. We don\u2019t play this game for a participation trophy. We want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newton takes losing harder than most.<\/p>\n

In some past Carolina defeats, he\u2019s sat distraught at his locker still in his uniform for more than 30 minutes after the conclusion of the game. There are times it has taken him more than an hour before addressing the media.<\/p>\n

Because this was the Super Bowl, Newton was forced into the interview room a little sooner than normal.<\/p>\n

At one point, his attention appeared to drift to listening to Broncos players who were celebrating and talking about their win on the other side of the interview room.<\/p>\n

Rivera suggested in the future Newton may need more time before addressing the media to get his emotions in check.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of young people out there looking at who we are, and we are role models for them,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cI think again we know who he is and he does take it hard. Quite honestly if he is going to take it hard, as a public service, we should avoid having him talk right away. People take losses, not just football losses, but personal losses different ways. Time is probably the best thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teammates rallied behind Newton on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

They said they know how badly he wanted to win and how hard he takes losing games.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a competitor just like everybody else,\u201d fullback Mike Tolbert said. \u201cHe\u2019s not happy at all about what happened. I\u2019m not happy about what happened. I think everyone on our team is not happy, so why should we be all smiles after? I can\u2019t expect anybody to be laughing and joking and ecstatic about losing a football game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman refused to criticize his franchise quarterback for the way he acted after the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want players that hate to lose,\u201d Gettleman said. \u201cI want players that I know when the game is over they are crawling into the locker room and they need help getting their gear off and they are going to need time getting into the shower. I want the buses to be late to the airport if we\u2019re traveling. We all handle defeat differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Online:<\/p>\n

AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and AP NFL Twitter feed: http:\/\/twitter.com\/AP_NFL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 Cam Newton isn\u2019t apologizing for acting like a \u201csore loser\u201d after the Super Bowl. The league\u2019s MVP has been widely criticized for walking out of a three-minute press conference after a 24-10 loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday in which he answered questions with mostly one- and two-word responses while sulking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-24883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24883"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}