Super Bowl 50 was perhaps not the exhilarating aerial showcase that some had hoped it would be. The Broncos’ Peyton Manning, who was (figuratively, but just barely) dragged to the NFL’s championship game by a rugged defense, did not magically and improbably morph back into his 30 year old self when the ceremonial coin was flipped. On the other side, the Panthers’ Cam Newton receded from the moment utterly, capping his 2015-16 MVP campaign with an absolute whimper of a performance, replete with rewindable talking-head-ready clips like this one, in which he appears to hop backwards away from his own loose ball fumble.

Of course, it’s ridiculous to assume that Newton was somehow avoiding the loose ball — anyone with an ounce of sense and honesty would say that he intended to catch it on the rebound, or mistook a Denver player’s glove for the ball. But Seattle Seahawks players (which Cam’s Panthers defeated on the road to SB50) have no reason to be honest about Cam Newton.

Lol Russell woulda got the football

— Bruce Irvin (@BIrvin_WVU11) February 8, 2016

This is nonsense, obviously, and sour grapes of the highest order. There’s nothing to suggest that Russell Wilson would have recovered that football outside of the fact that the colors on his jersey match the ones on Irvin’s. By that logic, Wilson might not have fumbled at all. Actually, he’d be out of the game already, because the Seahawks would be winning by a margin of 100-0, and any further play could result in unnecessary injury. That’s what would happen.

Except it didn’t.