Like Dan Marino, Cam may never get back
By Sean Denison
Leading up to Super Bowl 50, all eyes were on Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. Before the game, Newton was already unanimously proclaimed the NFL’s MVP and was, for sure, the most exciting player in football at the sports most adored position. But the game itself, however, didn’t exactly live up to the hype.
On the biggest stage of his football career, Newton crumbled; he looked lost, scared, and out of rhythm all night. But as the words “he’ll be back again” spewed from the mouths of everyone in attendance at the party I was at, I couldn’t help but shake my head and roll my eyes. In fact, a lot more people on social media and several popular media outlets belched out the same sentiment.
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“He’ll be back again.” Are you kidding me? What makes people so sure that Cam Newton will, in fact, be back at another Super Bowl? I get it—he’s extremely talented and has a good chance at returning—but people, many of whom I respect—speak with such assurance. Look, I think he has a “chance” at returning, but to be so adamant about something so hard to achieve is confusing. Or, maybe, I just have a bad taste in my mouth.
My sport’s idol is Dan Marino. As a little kid growing up in South Florida, Marino was what we Floridians talked about. For me—both figuratively and literally—Marino was a God. From as early as 5 years old, I would toss around a football in the backyard with friends pretending I was Dan Marino and they were the Mark’s brothers, Nat Moore, Irving Fryar, or O.J. McDuffie. We were all transfixed by the man.
Getting to the NFL’s biggest stage in only his second year in the league, we, as well, thought for sure: “he’ll be back again.” But as fate would have it, Marino never did go back. To this day, still, the argument against Dan Marino as an elite quarterback is the fact that he doesn’t possess the one thing all other comparable quarterbacks have: a ring. Surely, we can all rehearse the arguments as to why Marino never got the one thing most great quarterbacks have. But this conversation has gone on for so long that it has lost its significance.
Everyone thought for sure that the most talented passer the NFL has ever seen would go back to another Super Bowl. Hell, we still can’t believe that a man with such said talent doesn’t have a win at one—it’s a complete travesty. How could the football God’s even allow this?
Maybe it’s time to pump the breaks a bit with the Cam Newton talk. Cam is a transcendent talent that we all enjoy watching, but good things don’t always come to the most deserving. Dan Marino knows a thing or two about that.