NEW YORK The NFL will review how the Panthers medical team handled a hit to Cam Newtons head during Carolinas loss to Denver in the season opener. “We can hit him in the legs sometimes, but his legs are strong”, Marshall said.
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Newton showed his toughness and stayed in the game despite the beating he was taking all night, and towards the end, guided the Panthers to within field goal range to give them a chance to steal a win, but kicker Graham Gano missed his attempt (after being iced by Broncos coach Gary Kubiak).
Later in the 2nd quarter, Cam Newton scored on a 2 yard rushing touchdown to put Carolina ahead 14 to 7.
Ultimately, it’s a responsibility that needs to be shared by players, their teams, the National Football League, and the unaffiliated ATCs to monitor a player’s health. During stoppage in play while on-field officials were in the process of administering penalties, the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant and team physician requested video from the spotters and reviewed the play. The NFL said in a statement Friday that its experts at the game reviewed a video of the play and then chose to let Newton stay in the game.
The NFL believes the concussion procedures were followed properly, a league spokesman said.
The problem with those statements is twofold.
The coach would like to see Newton, now in his sixth season, get some “veteran favoritism” from the league’s officials.
Newton said he didn’t feel he was being targeted and dodged a question about whether he received fair and adequate protection from Steratore’s crew. 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.
As the game was going, there was clearly time for someone to check him during the game. That play, a helmet-to-helmet hit by linebacker Brandon Marshall, in which the defender launched himself at Newton, was obviously a missed call, the source said, and should have been a penalty. “It stung and the guys stung a little bit on the airplane last night, but when we get back together Monday, we’ll be ready to go and start looking forward to San Francisco”. The Panthers were down by a point at the time and the reigning Most Valuable Player was banged up. “We’ll see”, he said.
Rivera actually talked for about 10 minutes at his Friday press conference before he was asked about the game instead of Newton. Of those, only one was penalized.
“Still don’t understand how that’s possible to get intentional grounding when you get personal fouled”, tight end Greg Olsen said. “You know the deal”. The hit left Newton doubled over in pain on the sideline.
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“People throw all these jingles out there about (Cam is) mobile, he’s bigger, he’s more physical”, Newton said. The Broncos were down most of the game largely because they had committed three turnovers to none by the Panthers. They said it was one of the reasons they won Thursday night. Moreover, how could the Panthers and the NFL’s independent eye-in-the-sky not stop the fight following the final helmet-to-helmet collision, this one courtesy of Broncos S Darian Stewart coming full speed and leaving his feet to lay out Newton, without checking on Newton’s well-being?
