Some believe that by the time his career is over, Cam Newton will have changed the way quarterback is played. “We can hit him in the legs sometimes, but his legs are strong”, Marshall said.
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After the reigning MVP’s Carolina Panthers fell once again to the Denver Broncos, this time by the score of 21-20 in the NFL’s season opener on Thursday night, several of Newton’s coworkers sounded off on what they perceived to be unfair officiating of the quarterback.
A spokesman for the NFL Players Association told ESPN that it is looking into whether the concussion protocol was followed.
“I think the National Football League really cares more about its image than it does player safety”, Garcia said. Earlier, he attended NFL Kickoff festivities in his role as pitchman for DirecTV, which sent out a video interview in which he was asked about the Broncos QB situation.
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The look on the face of the Carolina staff member told the story of the night. “None of them felt that he was under duress at that time and they allowed him to continue”.
“If there is a questionable call, you have to go to replay just to make sure”, Rivera said. That’d be cool. Again, it’s a very hard thing the referees have to do.
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.
“It’s tough, man. The guy is a big defensive end playing quarterback. He goes to shoot a little layup and gets hacked and hammered and they don’t call it”, Rivera said.
Because for all of the opinions about Newton and his brash style of play, the league is better with him on the field. I don’t want it to necessarily be because he’s a black quarterback. “I think that’s our moment”. There’s no question his helmet made contact with Newton’s helmet, and if it had been called for a penalty, the league would have been fine with it, the source said. No penalty was called, and you had to wonder what it was going to take for the flag to be thrown.
“The thing that we didn’t do and needed to do better, we should have shut the run down and forced the guy to win the game”.
Broncos Coach Gary Kubiak was frustrated by the mistakes the Broncos made – including giving up long yardage to the Panthers on third down in the first half when Carolina totaled more than 200 offensive yards.
Still, against a stout Carolina defense, it was an impressive win.
The Panthers came racing out of the blocks and on his first drive, Newton went 71 yards, connecting with Kelvin Benjamin from seven yards to finish the move and give the Panthers the lead. He finished with six catches for 91 yards. A penalty on fourth-and-21, however, kept the Carolina drive alive until Newton retreated to the sideline when Gano came in for the potential game-winner. “The timeout didn’t affect me, it never does.”.
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If nothing else, it showed that Newton is subject to a different set of rules than the league’s other QBs. The ACL is damaged more often, but injury to the lesser-known PCL can also be a challenge to bounce back from.
