Here’s why Cam Newton became my hero.

If you’ve ever tried to play a sport at an elite level, you know the pain of failing in a big game. Regardless of money or fame, the moment your dream gets crushed you feel like this:

Seeing Cam Newton collapse in agony to the turf at the end of the Superbowl reminded me of an incident that happened many years ago on a lonely court in San Bernadino, when an aspiring professional tennis player ended up on the ground in much the same position you see above.

To paraphrase JFK, “Ich bin ein Panther.”

I know, there are differences. Cam felt the additional burden of letting his entire team down.

And, 114 million people were watching Cam as it happened.

But here’s the difference that really matters:

Only true champions climb up out of the depths of defeat to show this kind of class five minutes later*.

This is the model you should use to teach your children about sportsmanship — not the media’s reaction to his post-game interviews.

Some of the greatest athletes in modern history — with far more success and experience — have failed to show Cam’s level of sportsmanship after a painful loss.

Lebron James failed this test before winning his first championship. But how do you excuse this behavior from 3-time Superbowl MVP Tom Brady? Or Peyton Manning, who had already won a Superbowl? Even worse, in my opinion, was watching 5-time NBA Champ Kobe Bryant throw his teammates under the bus on different occasions, despite personally blowing big leads in a playoff series.

And don’t get me started on some of the worst narcissists in the history of my sport — Nastase, Connors and McEnroe.

I don’t have an agenda in this media clusterf*ck

(Unless there’s some way you join my Los Angeles Rams, Cam. With your ability and personality, you will be treated like the second coming of Magic Johnson!)

I have never been a Carolina fan. I hated to see the PAC-12 lose to the SEC when Newton lead Auburn to a last second win against Oregon.

And I’m not some black dude who rightfully feels the need to protect a brother getting dumped on by the short sighted idiots in the media and the thousands of anonymous racist haters on the internet.

The fact is, I hate trash talking, because it is a cheat to diminish the level of athletic excellence that we fans pay to see. No matter how good an athlete is, he is basically admitting “I’ve got to get into your head because I’m not good enough to compete with you mano a mano on the field.”

But Cam is not taunting an opponent — all we’ve seen is his unabashed joy when he celebrates. Other players do a dumb dance, try to act cool and expect the fans to worship at their feet. Cam just shares the love and gives a kid the ball. Four other athletes, including Lebron, did the dab first. Cam just does it better! If a couple of old college coaches can dab, and these people can kill it, why is it such a big deal if Cam does it?

I’ve become a Cam Newton fan because he’s a frail human being — not a robotic corporate shill — and he owns it.

Scott Gustin wrote a great article, stating that Cam is “a football fan playing football.” But there’s much more to it than that. Imagine if you were somehow given the ability to play at his level while still learning how to become a champion. How would any of us react to situations that are impossible to practice while millions of people watch?

Peak performance in sports is a combination of physical mastery (think about Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule) and mental toughness. Little kids play hundred of games, experiencing every kind of situation and performance multiple times. They learn painful lessons and become mentally tough long before they enter the professional ranks.

But what happens when you are so outstanding physically, you grow up dominating your sport and never get the psychological reps of struggling against an equal level of competition?

Newton has only five years experience dealing with the stress of competing at a level where every player on the opposing team can challenge him physically. He’s still a work in progress.

Other players have dealt with these situations throughout their earlier, anonymous years. Cam may still be one of the best athletes on the field, but the differences are so small now it’s the mental part of the game that separates the champions from the also-rans. We can see Newton’s improvement since his rookie season. And he’s going to get better.

Cam Newton’s story of success and failure, celebration and sorrow is the ultimate hero’s journey.

Check out this ESPN film on Newton. It chronicles how he went from being an all-world high school player, to being a bench warmer behind Tim Tebow at Florida, to getting in trouble, to starting over at a hole-in-the-wall junior college in Texas, to becoming a Heisman trophy winner and NCAA Champion the next year.

He may be Michael Strahan in a quarterback uniform, but his emotional ups and downs make him the true Everyman. Watching him stumble and get up is an inspiration. Those wounds have kept him humble. You can see it in the way he can make fun of himself and how great he is with kids:

Cam Newton’s exciting, unpredictable and full of joy. He doesn’t fit the clichéd mold of a stoic football leader, and I say thank God. But that drives a lot of other people crazy, because they’re more comfortable rooting for the guy who wears a white hat and rides a white horse.

When you get down to it, the haters are complaining that Cam is not perfect, like he’s football’s version of Luke Skywalker.

Well, they’re right.

He’s HAN F*CKING SOLO!

And every Star Wars fan knows that the one guy (besides Darth Vader) who turned George Lucas’ space soap opera into a transcendent movie experience was Harrison Ford’s classic conflicted hero. I have no doubt that Cam Newton will turn it around and help his own Luke (Kuechly) to triumph over the dark forces in the end.

So Cam, if you’re reading this, when you finally win that ring, a lot more people than you realize will be dabbing right along with you.

*I wish I could say that I learned that kind of mental toughness when I was struggling on the circuit, but I can’t. It only developed after I started practicing Inner Game skills as a coach. And I’m not alone in that regard. Pete Carroll completely transformed his coaching career after learning about the Inner Game from my friend Sean Brawley.