Whether the reason being the pace of the game and helmet to helmet cannot always be seen, or the mentality officials have on Cam because of how he plays and his size, none of that should matter.
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Goodell gets to have his hard hits and his high horse, too. The best way to do that is by penalizing the type of hits that create the need for such testing early in the contest before things get out of hand, as they did on Thursday night when the Denver defense was allowed to run roughshod over Newton.
The blow from Marshall may have been accidental, but it didn’t look that way.
For the last several years, it’s been thought that the NFL has been overprotecting quarterbacks, making them into essentially flag football players, with rules created to heavily penalize players that hit QBs too hard, or even a millisecond too late, discouraging contact to the quarterback altogether. At least one hit showed a player launching into the 6-foot-5, 245-pound Newton, an action that is prohibited by league rules. That puts him ahead of former Panther Jeremy Shockey (547) for seventh all-time for receptions by a tight end.
But the Denver pass rushers got to Newton regularly in the second half.
He remained in the trainer’s room for almost an hour after the game had ended after being sacked three times, and hit eight more, not counting the punishment he received on his 11 rushing attempts.
But twice, Newton was clearly shaken. Chris Harris Jr. intercepted Cam Newton two plays later and Anderson took it in from the 1. No one wants to see a sport lose part of its base appeal, but what was clear, particularly on that final hit, is Newton was failed by a system that should have forced him out of the game and put his well being above a final-minute drive or a satisfying revenge victory or massive TV ratings. Newton lay face down for several seconds before he got up – and never left the field.
The Broncos had two players tested for concussions Thursday night – Jordan Norwood and Brandon Marshall. It’s a team game.
“They have an advantage with Cam”, safety T.J. Ward said.
“I know he’s the biggest guy on the field, but he’s still the quarterback”, Olsen said. For the Super Bowl, my wife and I were still living in an apartment in Morehead City – we’ve since bought a house in Newport – and we were still playing zone defense with our little one. Maybe they simply didn’t see the hits. “There were a lot of collisions in the game”, Kubiak said. But it causes you to wonder – are you really biased or have some hidden reason [for treating him differently]? (Hochuli denied it.) Newton wouldn’t say why he bit his tongue Thursday, but emphasized he knew people were going to be scrutinizing his interaction with the media after an infamous, abbreviated session with reporters following the Super Bowl.
The Denver Broncos have started the National Football League season the exact way they finished the last, beating the Carolina Panthers, just as they did in Superbowl LI.
Newton stayed in and led the Panthers into field goal range, although Graham Gano missed a 50-yard attempt that would have given Carolina the lead.
But this is a ruthless, win-it-all-costs business.
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A spokesman for the NFL Players Association told ESPN that it is looking into whether the concussion protocol was followed. There is an independent neurologist on each sideline, but they work along with the team medical personnel.
