The secret to Cam Newton's MVP season is taped to the wall of the quarterbacks’ meeting room at Bank of America Stadium.

It’s not a photo, nor is it a motivation message. Only a few select people inside the building have ever seen it. But time and again this season, Newton has been able to draw from it.

“It’s great preparation,” he said when asked about his games of P-I-G against Derek Anderson and Joe Webb.

Yup, P-I-G, as in the abridged version of H-O-R-S-E you play with a basketball. But for the Panthers’ quarterbacks, their court is the meeting room and their basket is the rim of a mini hoop fastened to the wall.

“It's just a little friendly competition that we do when we're here by ourselves,” Anderson said.

Friendly can be a relative term.

"We take it extremely serious,” Newton said. "It’s been a lot of heated arguments, a lot of heated games."

Before we go any further, let’s clear up a couple of things: 1) Even though he made the comments above with a straight face, sure, it’s unlikely P-I-G has much to do with Newton turning into the most dominant player in the league. 2.) For those wondering why the quarterbacks are wasting their time with a stupid basketball game and not watching film every second — relax. Think of this as their study break.

 

 

Now, back to the story.

There are rules to these games … obviously. You can bounce the ball off the wall, projector screen or your head. You’re allowed to distract the shooter, but you can’t touch him. And there’s no shooting during meetings.

“As soon as the meeting starts, ball’s down,” Anderson says. “But (quarterbacks coach Ken) Dorsey’s not allowed to touch the ball. That’s one of the stipulations."

What helps cause so much tension is how many rules are made up on the fly.

For example, there’s this beef from Anderson:

"Joe has this stupid shot where you bend your back all the way over and shoot it. It's cheating."

But a guy should be able to make the shot as hard as he wants. It's P-I-G.

"I can't bend over like that."

So it's cheating because he can do it and you can't?

“Physical limitations."

Says Webb:

"It's not cheating. It's P-I-G, you've gotta make the shot."

Exactly.

Not surprisingly, each guy thinks he's better than the other two. So let’s ask an objective observer.

"Those guys are equal,” receiver Philly Brown said. “But if I was in there, then it'd be a different story.

"They don’t let me in there. They’ve seen me on the real courts. They don't want me to play."

Oh?

"No, that's not true,” says Webb. "Whoever comes into the room and wants to play, we let them play."

The quarterbacks can’t agree on who’s the best between them, but they do jibe on this.

"We have guests come in sometimes and get whooped real quick and then leave. They come try and it doesn't work out for them,” Anderson said. “Like Josh Norman last week, so he had to bring us breakfast."

Since we’re doing proper journalism here, let’s give Norman a chance to defend himself.

"Ah, I don't want to talk about that because they are some cheaters. Cam and DA, they cheat,” he claims. "They stacked it up against me. I tried to overcome it, but they still cheated."

Of course, asking around about the cheating just leads to more accusations. For his part, Webb shrugged his shoulders and said of those who try to win on the road:

"It's the quarterback's home court, so they've got to bring their A-game."

In all seriousness, P-I-G is a perfect example of how coach Ron Rivera wants his guys to keep their personality. So when Anderson says they have to bring the rim to Santa Clara, he’s not messing around.

"They are a different breed. The way they do things is completely different,” says Rivera.

"To sit in a meeting or kind of look over their shoulders as they’re hanging out and working together. It’s a really good tenement. It’s kind of nice because I think they all feed off each other."

And they all push each other, albeit, with a mini basketball.

"When you have a person screaming in your ear, trying to do anything to detract you from making a shot, that has a lot of translation to a person screaming saying you can’t get a first down," Newton said. 

So on Super Bowl Sunday, if the Panthers need a fourth-quarter drive to beat the Broncos, at least he won’t be afraid to take the last shot.