SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The dab is dead.
Until further notice.
There would be no dabbing from Cam Newton on the biggest night of his NFL life, a night when the Panthers superstar was attempting to complete one of the greatest seasons a quarterback has ever delivered.
During Broncos 24, Panthers 10 in Super Bowl 50 on Sunday night at Levi’s Stadium, it was somewhat understandable Newton struggled in the loss; he had never faced a defense as ferocious as Denver’s.
Newton, who was sacked six times for 64 yards in losses, completed just 18-of-41 passes for 265 yards with an interception and two lost fumbles that led to 15 Denver points.
What was not understandable — and, quite frankly, was inexcusable from a face-of-the-franchise star — was how small Newton came off after the game when he showed stunning immaturity by abruptly bolting from his postgame interview.
By doing that, Newton didn’t stick around long enough to answer a question about why he ran away from the pile after his second fumble, late in the fourth quarter with Carolina trailing only 16-10.
After Von Miller had his second strip-sack of Newton, the Panthers quarterback appeared to shy away from diving into the pile to recover his fumble as Broncos linebacker DeMarcus Ware was about to pounce on it. Broncos safety T.J. Ward recovered it and clinched the victory for Denver.
Newton?
He offered little insight to what went wrong, and even less class in the process.
“They played better than us,’’ Newton said. “I don’t know what you want me to say. They made more plays than us. There wasn’t nothing special that they did.’’
Wrong.
The Broncos’ defensive scheme, devised by the greatly underrated Wade Phillips, was brilliant. It took away Newton’s running and nullified his favorite target, tight end Greg Olsen, with changing, disguised looks.
“We dropped balls, we turned the ball over, gave up sacks, threw errant passes,” Newton said. “They scored more points than us.’’
After that enlightening exchange, Newton answered six more questions with a total of 18 words — matching his completions for the game — before bolting.
So that’s the last image we’ll have of Newton, which is a shame, because he should be celebrated for the amazing season he had.
But, as regrettable as his performance was on the field, Newton was worse off of it, taking the shine off the happy-go-lucky persona he displays when things are going well with the dabbing and sparkling toothpaste-commercial smiles.
There’s an unsavory word for that in sports: Front-runner.
It is a shame Newton didn’t take a cue from his head coach, the classy Ron Rivera, who went out of his way to credit what the Broncos did to his team rather than lament the things his team did not do.
If Newton is going to be embraced instead of vilified by those who are unnecessarily offended his showboating persona and his dabbing, he’s going to need to take a little more ownership when things don’t go well for him.
“I’ve spoken to him,’’ Rivera said before Newton emerged for his unfortunate interview episode. “This one is going to hurt. It’s going to hurt everyone.”
Panthers veteran receiver Jerricho Cotchery, the classy former Jet, insisted Newton would one day bring a championship to Carolina.
“I know what type of work he puts in,’’ Cotchery said. “I know he’ll be able to put himself back the position to get this job done. He’s going to bring a championship to the city. But I know this definitely stings.’’
As it does for every team that loses the Super Bowl, the end came with almost violent abruptness. The loss swiftly sucked the life from every one of the Carolina players, but none more than Newton, who’d been so brilliant all season, accounting for 45 of the team’s 54 offensive TDs in the regular season.
When it ends for the Super Bowl loser, the finality of it all is something that players who’ve experienced it have a difficult time describing. Some even contend they’d rather not have gotten to the game at all if they were not going to win it.
Maybe those thoughts were going through Newton’s mind Sunday night. We’ll never know.
But once the shiny, gold confetti rained down on the field and Newton and the Panthers, who entered the game with a remarkable 17-1 record, were quickly ushered off the field to make way for the winners’ celebration ceremony, suddenly those 45 touchdowns of Newton’s meant nothing. The league MVP award he just received meant nothing.
“He’s a great competitor and he had an unbelievable year the way he took control of this offense and demanded the best from all the men that were around him,’’ Cotchery said. “I know not being able to have a Super Bowl ring at the end of this year he had hurts. It definitely hurts not being able to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.’’