Lowell Cohn: There’s no comparing Peyton Manning to Cam Newton

SANTA CLARA

Peyton Manning wants to kick Cam Newton’s butt. God love him for it.

Everyone asks Manning about Newton at these interview sessions where all journalists - me too - shill for the NFL. Can you imagine one baseball game getting this volume of pregame words? And Manning, mature, diplomatic, skillful, his voice like poured honey, answers politely, seems to give Newton full credit for being the phenomenon he is. But there’s more to it than that. A subtext. Manning’s pride.

Look at Manning’s words from Tuesday morning, Manning sitting on a platform in front of a microphone, cameras and recorders in his face like he’s a movie star - he sure is a media star. Someone asked about the “matchup” between him and Newton, both No. 1 draft picks.

Manning: “We don’t play against each other, but it’s a great matchup between two great football teams. That’s where the matchup is. Talking about Cam Newton, he was the No. 1 pick couple of years ago, had an outstanding career at Auburn and is off to an incredible start in his young NFL career, and he’s definitely earning that honor of being the No. 1 pick by being the player that he is.”

Very polite. Seemingly benign. But notice the key words, the loaded phrases.

“Had an outstanding career at Auburn.”

“Young NFL career.”

This is a 39-year-old guaranteed Hall of Famer talking about a 26-year-old who has not yet defined himself in the long term. Manning emphasizes Newton’s small sample size in the NFL, focuses on Newton in college. The meaning? Something like, “Talk to me when he’s played ?18 seasons, not just five. Talk to me when he’s achieved like me.”

I asked, “Do you, in any sense, have Cam Newton envy, his youth and all the things he can do?”

Manning stared at me. Not unfriendly. Just stared like the question didn’t mean a thing to him. He waited a good five seconds just staring. “Umm, no,” he finally said and turned away.

It would have been easier for Manning to say, “Cam is a great athlete with an incredible body, not just for a quarterback, but for any football player. And he throws the ball far and with accuracy. I admire everything he does.”

That would have been easy and politically correct, and would have raised no questions. But Manning could not bring himself to say any of that. At a certain level, he must be sick of people comparing him to Newton, of people implying he is not Cam Newton.

Well, from his point of view, he doesn’t have to be Cam Newton. Because he’s Peyton Manning. A great thing to be Peyton Manning. I’m sure he compares himself unfavorably to no one even though he can’t throw like he used to and is a victim of surgeries and life’s decay.

He went on to define himself as a quarterback. Listen to what he said - I love this guy. “As a quarterback, your job is to have an appreciation and respect for the cerebral part of the game. Try to find some type of edge. I’ve always tried to find some type of edge from the cerebral part as a student of the game.”

In other words, he’s not a physical specimen, not like Newton. And while he’s not saying Newton is stupid - he isn’t saying that - Manning is saying he is a student and a teacher and a thinker of football. A philosopher of football. And that’s what makes him special. It’s the stuff older athletes say. They replace talent with wisdom. An inevitable progression.

Still, reporters kept asking Manning to make the comparison. And because he knows how to handle the media and how to be a gentleman, he said of Newton, a presence he can’t escape, “He’s off to an incredible start in his career. He had a tremendous college career. He was the No. 1 pick in the draft and with that comes a lot of expectations and, as I’ve always said, when you’re the No. 1 pick in the draft, it’s not really an award. It’s an honor.

“They’re rewarding you for being a good college player, but also they’re saying, ‘OK, we need you to be a really, really great player for us.’ There are expectations which come with it and I tried my best to hold up my end of the agreement when I was drafted No. 1 by the Colts because you want to be that player for the team that drafted you. You want to make them happy with your choice, and he is off to an awesome start and I assume making the Panthers very happy that they drafted him No. 1.”

Manning gets to Newton almost as an afterthought in that long quote. He talks about the responsibility of being the No. 1. pick. Manning lived up to the responsibility. It’s up to Newton to do the same - up to him on Sunday. Let’s see him do it. Manning doesn’t even say the Panthers are happy to have Newton. Won’t give Newton that. He assumes the Panthers are happy - a statement that allows for discussion, perhaps even a particle of doubt.

And then a reporter, who refused to give up, asked, “What skills does (Newton) have you wish you have.”

Manning looked at me - God, I felt guilty - and said, “He asked me that earlier and I don’t have an answer for you on that.”

Meaning, drop the Newton comparisons. Meaning Newton has not created the opus Manning has created. Meaning people expect Manning to pass the torch to Newton, and pass it gracefully. Meaning Manning wants no part of that pass or that grace. Meaning Manning wants to kick Cam Newton’s butt every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.