Super Bowl 50: How Football Players Manage Performance Anxiety

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How do football players prepare themselves for the biggest stage in American sports? Most pros who have played in Super Bowl said that overcoming the jitters leading up to the actual game is one of the hardest things to overcome.

This year's Super Bowl 50 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, the Denver Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers 24-10. The game was not as exciting as Beyoncé's performance during the halftime show as the Broncos controlled the game from the start.

Players from both teams can now sit back and relax. A few days leading up to the game, relaxation is not something they can easily do as game jitters that come with anxiety attacks surrounded the players.

According to a report from CBS News, the director of sport and performance psychology at the University of Denver, Mark Aoyagi, said that football players are just like any other normal human being. They look tough when they bang bodies on the field but, when it comes to managing performance anxiety, they are just like any other human being.

"It's a common misnomer. Pro athletes do experience anxiety, the same way everybody else does," Aoyagi said.

Telling the players to think of it as just another season game is not going to help these athletes to relax. It is impossible to stay focus in an even like this. The league should have the initiative to provide mental health support for these players, added Aoyagi, who also works with NFL and other professional athletes.

"In my experience, the NFL has been the slowest to adopt sports psychology as a mainstream part of the sport," he told CBS News.

There are a few techniques a player can do to relax prior to a big event. Breathing exercise is one of them and is said to be very effective. Athletes can also listen to their favorite music while doing some physical exertion to sweat out unwanted stress.

In his earlier interview with Hollywood Life, the Panther's quarterback, Cam Newton, said that he is "nervous as hell," when asked how he feels leading up to the event. The pressure may have affected the way he plays the game as he was pretty limited on the field against the more experience Peyton Manning of the Broncos.

Newton got sacked six times, which also shows the great defensive game of the Denver team.

Nevertheless, it was a great experience for the young quarterback from Atlanta Georgia.