Cam Newton may not have handled a bad night at the office particularly well.
But John Elway knows exactly how it feels, having gone through it two years ago.
The Broncos executive vice president said after Sunday’s Super Bowl 50 win, that the memories of their Super Bowl XLVIII thrashing at the hands of the Seahawks made it that much sweeter.
“There is nothing worse,” Elway said of that 43-8 loss. “Everyone crash lands unless you are this team, unless you are the team that wins it. It is always a crash landing for the other 31 teams. Watching [the Seahawks celebrate] and realizing and having looked at that and having been through all that — how special is it to be able to go through that.
“For us to be able to get back here two years from then and get back and have the orange tape flying is much better.”
In some respects, the crash landing for the Broncos was harder because of the different in score. Theirs was never particularly close, and they had to deal with humiliation in addition to a physical beating.
And if Newton and the Panthers want to put the pain of such a loss behind them, the Broncos have laid out the roadmap.