According to a league source, of the handful of plays that resulted in hits to Newton’s head, there should have been at least one more flag thrown.
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After the game, the medical staff spoke with Newton again in the locker room, on the bus to the airport, on the plane and, eventually, upon the team’s arrival in Charlotte, North Carolina. He passed each test and is expected to be at practice Wednesday when the Panthers begin on-field preparations for the game against the San Francisco 49ers on September 18. It’s easier to understand why Carolina head coach Ron Rivera and the Panthers’ medical team didn’t pull Newton for evaluation – with him on the field they had a great chance to win; without him they had less chance. Why wasn’t he tested during the game?
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. “But it’s not fun getting hit in the head”.
Rivera said he knows officials have a hard job to do, especially when it comes to a player like Newton who runs a lot.
One game into the season, the National Football League finds itself scrambling to explain why one of its marquee players was allowed to be abused by multiple head-shots without so much as a cursory examination for a possible concussion.
“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.
Newton played well in the first half, helping the Panthers take a 17-7 lead.
When the play calls for Newton to run the ball, or he decides to take off on his own, there’s not much officials can do.
We’ve already seen the league go above and beyond to protect other veteran quarterbacks.
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“I think the biggest thing is if there is an opportunity to go back and review things”, Rivera suggested. Because trying to tackle Newton is such a daunting task, defenders have to be extra physical with the Panthers QB. In both situations, the hits ended with helmet-to-helmet contact. “I liked the fact that Cam quoted me afterwards and that was, ‘Coach Rivera likes to say if you play good, you better be careful because you’re good enough to get beat”‘. He said he was asked questions after the game but didn’t recall what they were or who asked them. Asked if he had gone through the concussion protocol, he said he was asked a couple of questions, “but nothing too serious”, after the game. “It’s OK, though, I figured that some type of repercussion would happen”. Not that helmet hits should be cause for automatic concussion evaluation – offensive and defensive linemen get banged in the helmet nearly every play.
