Kovacevic: Cam and the cowardly call

Brief and to the Point ...

Cam Newton was the NFL's most valuable player in the season that just passed, and that's more than idle chit-chat coming from this direction: I voted for him, without hesitation, on my ballot as a member of the Pro Football Writers Association.

I've also written and spoken, vocally and vociferously, in admiration of the passion and joy with which he plies his trade. Yes, all the dancing, posing and everything. He's a blast to watch during and after so many plays.

But not that one play, in particular, in Sunday's Super Bowl in Santa Clara. And you know exactly which play I'm referencing:





I've never seen something like that. Not in a big game. Not in the biggest game or event of an athlete's life, amateur or professional, sandlot or Super Bowl.

And sorry, not to be mean, but I can't imagine how Newton lives that down.

Depending on one's view of the play, it could be seen as confused or frozen. Maybe he sought to create the bluff that he'd actually just thrown an incomplete pass, given that his arm did go forward after the ball came out. Elite sports happen so quickly. But all of that requires quite the leap because his first instinct was, in fact, to lean forward, then back off.

To repeat, it's not just that he didn't go after the ball. He backed off!

Another view might be that saw the bigger beef jumping into the pile and wanted to give his stronger teammates a better chance to battle. And I suppose all kinds of other views could be concocted, depending most likely on one's level of devotion to Newton.

But this can't be compared to whether other quarterbacks dive into piles, including Newton himself, when it's in the regular season. Or even earlier-round playoff games. Self-preservation, whether for selfish or team concerns, was a total non-issue here. This wasn't just the Super Bowl. This was a last-gasp drive in the Super Bowl, down by just six points with four minutes left!

Now watch it again, slower motion and more isolated on the quarterback:



That, my friends, is cowardly. And it's a word I don't type easily, but you'd better believe I'd type it if a Pittsburgh athlete did the same thing.

Making matters worse was Newton's bizarre session with reporters in Charlotte this morning: “OK. I didn’t get the fumble, but we can play tit for tat. I’ve seen numerous quarterbacks throw interceptions and their efforts afterwards…they don’t go. I don’t dive on one fumble because the way my leg was, it could have been contorted in a way.”

Say what?

So he's admitting fearing injury?

“OK, you say my effort," Newton replied to another question on this. "I didn’t dive down. I fumbled. That’s fine. But at the end of the day, we didn’t lose that game because of that fumble. I can tell you that.”

Yikes. Too late to get my ballot back?

• I called Carolina in this game, so this is hardly a told-you-so. But in last week's Tuesday Takes, I did point out that the Steelers' defensive annihilation of Newton and the Panthers in Charlotte just last season was built on the same principle: Crush the pocket from the edges, and make Newton uncomfortable. I wrote from the scene about how well that worked.

I can't help but wonder if Gary Kubiak and Wade Phillips didn't dissect that one frame by frame because it looked like the same game.

• This one is a brazen repeat from last week: A fully healthy Steelers team, including Le'Veon Bell, would have won it all.

And that statement is as meaningless now as it was then.

• Find a corner. And a safety. Get those done.