Referees have ‘a hidden bias’ against Cam Newton, father says
Cecil Newton, the father of Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, believes that NFL referees have “a hidden bias” against his son, he said in an interview with ESPN’s Jim Trotter.
In a loss to the Broncos on Thursday night, Newton was the subject of several vicious hits. The biggest came with less than a minute to go in regulation, when safety Darian Stewart delivered a helmet-to-helmet hit on the reigning NFL MVP. Stewart was flagged on the play, but some of the other head-to-head hits went unpenalized.
“I’m beginning to question the consistency of how games are being called—and who they would call this particular play against versus this particular player,” Cecil Newton said. “Was Cam treated differently from other quarterbacks? In this case, yes he was—clearly. Anybody who has followed the game for any length of time and has a working knowledge of how the game is to be played would agree with that statement.”
The league said Friday that medical personnel had reviewed the hit and “concluded there were no indications of a concussion that would require further evaluation and the removal of the player from the game.”
