The time hits triple zero. Millions of fans around the country see the confetti fall and they’re not your colors. You shake the hand of the most respected man in the league and then you’re off the field. You’ve been dreaming about this since you were a kid and it just slipped away from the palm of your hands.

Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers had just lost the biggest game in his life and he was showing some emotion during the press conference. I understand that if he would have talked more it would have been a little less brutal on him. But how can you keep the happy-go-lucky face when you didn’t play your best and the world’s biggest sports reporters are basically asking you “How does it feel to lose the Super Bowl?” I agree that he did not need to walk off but he was being bombarded to the point that I understand why he did.

Newton, who had been named the MVP of the NFL the night before, focused on the one game that mattered the most and he could not perform at his high level as people expected him to. But he does deserve the credit for taking a very young team to the Super Bowl. The fact that they are an inexperienced group means that they will only get better.