In the Friday afternoon insult-to-injury category, Panthers quarterback Cam Newton was fined for a game he wasn’t even able to finish.
Newton was fined $9,115 for flipping a football in the face of Falcons linebacker Deion Jones last week, a play for which he was penalized during the game.
Coincidentally, Jones was the player who hit Newton in the fourth quarter, as Newton nonchalantly moved toward the goal line on a two-point conversion attempt.
That hit which landed Newton in the concussion protocol and will likely keep him out of Monday’s game with the Buccaneers.
But even Panthers coach Ron Rivera seemed to think his quarterback should have taken steps to protect himself, saying if he was still playing linebacker, he’d have probably taken a similar shot at Newton.