Kelvin Benjamin (13) of the Carolina Panthers is hit by Darian Stewart (26) of the Denver Broncos and, Aqib Talib (21) during the fourth quarter of the Broncos’ 21-20 win.
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Charles has been trying to come back from his second ACL surgery, this time to his right knee.
Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton (1) greets Denver Broncos quarterback Trevor Siemian (13) after an NFL football game, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016, in Denver. In both situations, the hits ended with helmet-to-helmet contact. Players don’t want to come out when they can still go, even if they should not. The NFL has empowered them to declare a “medical timeout”. More worrying, though, is the fact that the Panthers’ medical staff did not appear to evaluate Newton at all after the hit, and neither did the league concussion spotter.
Newton led the Panthers to a 17-7 halftime lead with 111 passing yards, a rushing touchdown, and a passing touchdown, and was looking every bit like the star QB he was until very early in the third quarter when DeMarcus Ware got around the edge and sacked him straight into Von Miller. Denver’s defense went hard at Newton who went hard back at them. That may be a sad commentary on how teams place a higher priority on winning than player safety.
The league said in a statement today that it will review all relevant aspects of the events that transpired on Thursday night in a more thorough effort to determine whether the medical professionals should have pulled Newton from the game.
His miss only piled on the pain for Newton, who stayed on one knee in disbelief as the stadium rocked and Trevor Siemian trotted out for one victory formation snap and a win in his first National Football League start. It’ll be great if he avoided a concussion, but that isn’t the issue.
Just like the Pittsburgh Steelers have experienced with Ben Roethlisberger over the years, the Panthers felt officials don’t always treat the 6-foot-5, 245-pound Newton as a typical quarterback. There was enough smoke there to look for a fire. Here is video of that news conference (WARNING: Newton swears during one of the answers).
As usual for this league, this seems like a question of priorities. “I will not let up on them”.
“Some of (the hits), obviously, you’d like to see them throw the flags”, he said.
So on Sunday, the NFLPA made it official that they will initiate a compliance investigation into whether Newton was handled properly.
“I have been getting a lot of hell for that hit”. “There are still 15 games left to play”. If there’s anyone to blame for Cam’s continued beating last night, they point the finger towards the independent doctors and trainers. Sometimes the hits aren’t obvious in real time from the sideline.
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The NFL and players’ union in the offseason jointly announced a new rule put in place to penalize teams – with fines or loss of draft picks – if all the safeguards put in place in recent seasons to protect players from brain injury were not followed. Yet the criteria is strict, too strict perhaps. The NFL released a statement Friday morning saying protocol was followed and “there were no indications of a concussion that would require further evaluation and the removal of the player from the game”.
