After watching his son take at least four shots to the head during Thursday night’s National Football League opener, the father of Cam Newton was not a happy camper following the Panthers’ 21-20 loss to the Broncos.
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One of the big talking points around the National Football League this offseason was concussions.
The biggest hit on Newton was by safety Darian Stewart on Carolina’s final possession, leaving the QB motionless on the ground for several seconds.
The NFL released a statement Friday morning saying there was communication between medical personnel on the Carolina sideline, including the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant, and the two independent certified athletic trainer spotters in the booth.
“I’m beginning to question the consistency of how games are being called – and who they would call this particular play against versus this particular player”, Newton said to ESPN.
The NFLPA could launch an investigation to determine whether proper protocol was followed. He was forced to attempt to win the game with a 50-yard field goal.
Panthers Coach Ron Rivera cited Newton’s size for a lack of flags after the head shots on Thursday.
Lewis hit out at the crackdown on defensive players asking if they were meant to “hit him soft or just lay on him (Cam Newton)”. “Some of them were hits that most certainly should have drawn flags”. “So as far as my knowledge, he’s no longer in the protocol, or he never was in the protocol”.
This isn’t the first time Rivera has faced questions about the way Newton was handled after taking a hard hit to the head.
It’s only natural that the officials see Newton, as imposing a quarterback as there is at 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds, in a different light than his mostly smaller counterparts.
“He gets hit multiple times, and you throw your hands up in the air and say ‘What are these guys looking at?'” Marshall used his helmet to bring Newton down on a crucial fourth-quarter drive, but no penalty was called.
Newton took the high road, but others spoke up on his behalf, including Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis. “I really like the officiating crew”.
“They asked me questions, but nothing too serious”, Newton said. By the end of the game, I believe they crossed that fine line. But the loss hurt because everything we did, we geared up to winning this game and now we’ve got to win the next one.
It is argued that Newton is refereed differently than any other quarterback in the league, this may be true, but Newton plays unlike any other quarterback in the league.
“He’s a big guy, and I just think that they think sometimes, ‘Oh, he can take it, ‘” Rivera told the Charlotte Observer. “So that makes it tough”.
Newton said after Thursday’s game that he didn’t think the Broncos targeted his head.
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The NFL doesn’t disagree with Rivera. When he was asked about a “racial” component to negative opinions of him as a player this offseason, he shrugged that off completely even though it’s undoubtedly part of it. Newton is the bigger man, not just physically, and, if anything, that should make him even more valuable to the league. At the end of the day, it’s about player safety. “So we have to find a better solution to keep these things down to a minimum”.
