The season opener Thursday night against Carolina was the flawless example as Broncos’ defensive players initiated helmet-to-helmet contact with Panthers quarterback Cam Newton on at least four occasions.
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The players’ union, which in July jointly announced with the league potential discipline for teams violating concussion protocol, might have more to say.
Cam Newton has passed concussion tests, but deserves more respect, Panthers coach Ron Rivera says.
After the game, the 6-foot-5, 245-pound Newton said it isn’t his job to question the officials and doesn’t feel like the Broncos hit him in the head intentionally.
I’m eager to see how the National Football League finds a way out of this situation. Here’s a big, physical basketball player and he goes to set a pick, a guy falls down and they call a foul on him. That may be a sad commentary on how teams place a higher priority on winning than player safety. “When he’s running the ball – they’ve got quarterback-designed runs, quarterback keeps, quarterback powers, draws, everything – we’re going to treat him like a running back”. A quarterback is considered defenseless in the pocket and cannot be hit in the helmet or neck area by an opponents helmet or face at ANY time (Rule 12, Section 2, Ar.7 of the NFL rule book), and as ESPN pointed out and as seen late in the second quarter, Von Miller should have been penalized for that exact violation (Kevin Seifert, NFL Nation).
“He was just as poised and calm as we expected him to be”, said CJ Anderson, who caught one touchdown pass from Siemian and ran for another score as the Broncos won their fourth straight home opener. The first came early in the third quarter, when DeMarcus Ware pulled Newton down and Von Miller hit him, facemask-to-facemask. Asked if he felt any differently than after a normal loss, Newton said: “I feel s – y”.
“Everything we did previous year just shows the kind of resiliency this team has”, linebacker Shane Ray said. This one finally earned a flag (Darian Stewart, roughing the passer), although it was negated by Newton’s own intentional grounding violation, an inglorious quirk to the rules.
Newton took seven quarterback hits and three sacks in the second half after taking only one quarterback hit and no sacks in the first half.
“I’m disappointed in the officiating crew, as a fan of the NFL”, Cecil Newton continued. We didn’t get that done. And they touted a new concussion protocol enforcement policy to hold teams accountable for recognizing them – and removing players from games when spotted. K Graham Gano booted a 50-yard field goal through the uprights in the final seconds, but that came after the Broncos had called timeout. “There are a lot of vets and a lot of great leadership in that group that I can lean on”. If they don’t have a good angle, they may not see what we see or what the folks viewing it on TV see, or the people that are covering it see. “There’s too much going through my head right now for me to remember what happened”.
“I try and warn the refs every time I do get hit in the head”, he said. That’s especially shocking for a quarterback like Newton who is not only a star in a league that goes out of its way to protect stars, but he is also a quarterback that defenses know they they have to hit a little harder than your typical signal caller.
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Only Stewart’s hit was penalized – and that was a flag thrown from far away by referee Gene Steratore, who saw what the back judge positioned near the play could not.
