“And so, regardless that I blew the whistle, Josh stored going like he is taught and the offense continued to react”.
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“What happened was Cam got stiff-armed in the helmet, and that’s where that escalated”.
“However this was one other check: How are you going to reply?” Norman then pushed Newton slightly harder and the two went at each other. Newton shouted: “I bet you won’t do that again”.
“As Cam said, there’s enough quality leadership on this football team that we know how to end things”, Rivera said. It started when Norman almost intercepted a Newton deep ball intended for Corey Brown. While he wasn’t thrilled about the altercation itself, Rivera was glad to see Newton assert himself as a team leader and Norman is one of the team’s best defensive players as well. But Newton instigated the scuffle.
A bit later, Newton kept his promise, firing downfield to Jerricho Cotchery.
His message? “That’s what we need”.
Newton is an extremely fiery individual, and that’s great, but he needs to understand his value to the organization and know when to back off. If he doesn’t learn from this incident, the Panthers could live to regret the five-year, $103 million extension they gave Newton in June. Norman is starting to remind me of a certain Panther (#89) who used to get under the opposing players skin and force them to commit 15 yarders.
Tensions between the two never really settled, as they exchanged words from across the field and Newton dared Norman to try it again. Newton pursued, but felt Norman hit him while he was running. “Unfortunately it got more physical than it needed to be”. But not every training camp fight features a franchise quarterback at the center of the storm.
According to the Panthers’ twitter account, head coach Ron Rivera was not pleased about the fight and who was involved.
“That’s the way I’m gonna look at it. That’s my spin, and I hope you guys put it that way”.
Rivera and general manager Dave Gettleman spoke to Norman after practice.
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Rivera said he’s not anxious about Newton and Norman resuming the fight in the Wofford dorms. You’ve seen it in how he’s come back from a auto wreck. The Panthers can not afford to have him get hurt.
