The two-week gap between conference championship weekend and the Super Bowl means the media hype can get redundant and overwhelming. Cam Newton is sick and tired of it.
Cam Newton thinks there’s too much Super Bowl media coverage
“How can I reword questions that I’ve been asked so many times?”
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
In a media availability session Wednesday, Newton shared his frustrations about answering the same questions over and over again. He also talked about how strange it is to meet the press on two consecutive days without there even being a practice in between.
“You know what’s confusing? How can I reword questions I’ve been asked so many times? Golly,” Newton said, via Pro Football Talk. “Nothing pretty much has changed since I’ve seen you guys 24 hours ago. I had an unbelievable sleep, but yet I’m up here again. It’s cool. It’s like I don’t know how you want to say it. I sound like a broken record.”
Newton also downplayed the spectacle surrounding the Super Bowl, noting the only difference between this week and other weeks is the suffocating media presence.
“It’s not necessarily the media pressure, it’s just media requirements that is getting up under a lot of people’s skin,” Newton said. “I think I’ve got to meet with you guys another time and nothing’s going to change. I’ll be walking out in this room, walking up those stairs, going to another meeting, going to practice, probably playing a couple of video games, talking to my parents, making sure they make it here on time, waking up, brushing my teeth – obviously – go to another meeting. Depends on what the breakfast looks like, if I may eat it or not. Go to the team meeting, come back to you guys and talk. I don’t get it. I don’t know what you guys want to know, man, but it is what it is.”
Newton is often gracious and insightful with the press, so it's rare to see him snap like this. He's given a couple of poignant answers recently about his role as a star African-American athlete, telling Jonathan Jones of the Charlotte Observer he thinks labeling himself as a "black quarterback" is constricting. Last week, Newton told the Observer his identity as an African-American quarterback may "scare some people."
But the overwhelming amount of media scrutiny during Super Bowl week can get to anybody –– even somebody who’s as comfortable in the spotlight as Newton.
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