Quote:1.  Not everyone else is Cam, and Cam is not everyone else;

 

2.  Not everyone else does it.  Have you seen Belicheck's press conferences after Super Bowl losses?  After regular season losses?  Heck, he's not always good at post game pressers for wins!  What's more, nobody assails his character because of the way he conducts his press conferences.

 

3.  For years, when the networks interviewed the players in the locker room post game, when they'd go to the losing team's locker room, only the coach would be interviewed post game.  Why?  Because the players, who have just busted their butts the entire season, fighting through pain and injury, who did the same in the most important games of their careers, were often less than hospitable after dealing with the media under those circumstances.  The raw emotion of the game is too fresh.  (see also: Sherman, Richard).

 

We, from the comfy confines of our man caves or living room, having the luxury of not having 250-300 pound men slam you into the turf, can readily pass judgment on players on teams not our own.  From the detached perspectives of keyboards hours and days after the event, we can pontificate about the cool, calm demeanor and ideals of sportsmanship players should display in the immediate aftermath of crushing defeat.

 

But I don't think ANY of us have played in the NFL, strived hard to reach the Super Bowl, and come up short of winning it all.  None of us cried after the game.  Was Josh Norman (?) wrong for crying in the aftermath?  Kids cry when they don't get what they want or encounter disappointment.  Why is there no thread assailing his character?  Marshall Faulk, who lost Super Bowl XXXVI and no works for NFL Network, said he understood Newton's response.

 

Football is a rough, tough, and emotional game played by human beings.  People are going to act emotionally to a tough loss.  Those emotional responses aren't always going to fit within some norms of etiquette.