Chances are at some point during Super Bowl 50, we'll see Panthers quarterback Cam Newton raise both fists up to his chest and violently whip them backwards as if he were ripping open his shirt. You can even bet on how many times this will happen (the over/under is set at 2.5).
Why does Cam Newton do the Superman celebration?
Other than the fact that he kind of is Superman on the football field.
Grant Halverson/Getty Images
If it looks like him doing a Superman imitation, well, that’s exactly what it is. And while he’s far from the first athlete to be handed a Man of Steel moniker, it’s hard to think of one who’s been more deserving.
It starts with his physique: at 6’5 and 245 pounds, he towers over most of the men trying to tackle him. Defenders bounce off Newton’s muscular frame like henchmen do to Superman’s.
On his way to the Super Bowl, Cam Newton ran over Chris Clemons. https://t.co/9Gv0RPUaeO pic.twitter.com/0fKwQAOHmD
— SB Nation GIF (@SBNationGIF) January 25, 2016
Add in his howitzer arm and what you have is an unstoppable force, one no different than Clark Kent.
“It’s coming off the notion of everybody sees the superhero in how I play,” Newton said of his nickname in September, via the Associated Press. “I’ve gotten the nickname Superman, SuperCam ever since I can remember.”
By now Newton’s story is known by all. He was a five-star recruit out of Atlanta who, after being arrested and suspended while at the University of Florida, ended up at junior college before transferring to Auburn and winning the Heisman and BCS national championship. After that he was drafted No. 1 overall by the Panthers in 2011 and five years later he’s morphed into the league’s most dangerous weapon, the NFL’s equivalent of LeBron James, a man so big and so strong and so much more impressive than all the other behemoths surrounding him that you can’t help but compare him to, well...
SUPERCAM pic.twitter.com/OlmW4odrWL
— SB Nation GIF (@SBNationGIF) September 20, 2015
Of course, part of what makes Cam so much fun is that he enjoys the comparisons -- to comic book superheroes...
#SuperCam pic.twitter.com/F7MOchOxqT
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) December 22, 2013
Newton even showed up to Super 50 Media Day/Media Night/Super Bowl Opening/Whatever The Hell It’s Called These Days rocking a pair of custom made Under Armour Curry 2s which, of course, featured a Superman logo on the tongue.
Newton is clearly engrossed with all forms of superheroes. In November 2013, Gatorade put out a comic book featuring Newton as a superhero called The Blender. A month later Cam showed up on field donning a pair of Batman cleats.
But over the past year or so, as he’s torched the NFL and led Carolina back to the Super Bowl for the first time in 13 years, Newton has fully embraced the notion that he is the league’s Man of Steel, as have the Panthers who, as the year went on, began pumping the Superman theme song out of the Bank of America speakers.
And for good reason. He threw for 3,837 yards and 35 touchdowns this season. He was picked off just 10 times and added in 636 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground. The Panthers won 15 out of 16 games and in the playoffs he's been ever better. The normally stout defenses of the Seahawks and Cardinals looked like a bunch of middle schoolers trying to bring him down.
Now Newton is just one game away from delivering Carolina its first ever Super Bowl title. If he succeeds you can be sure they’ll be plenty of Superman celebrations to go around.
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