Panthers head coach Ron Rivera had already finished his post-game press conference, when quarterback Cam Newton blasted officials and said he didn’t feel safe on the field.
So given a chance to address those remarks Monday, Rivera said he supported his quarterback, regarding a lot hit from Cardinals defensive tackle Calais Campbell which was not called.
“Cam is correct,” Rivera said, via Jourdan Rodrigue of the Charlotte Observer. “I support him 100 percent in this. . . .
“I was disappointed it wasn’t called. . . . But I get the benefit of looking up at the screen and seeing it on replay. It confirmed what I thought. It’s difficult. You’d like to see those calls made. I’d love to see our quarterback get those calls.”
Rivera went along with the notion that Newton’s sheer size made officials more hesitant to call penalties against him that other players.
“I think he gets a little bit of the Shaquille O’Neal treatment,” Rivera said. “He’s a bigger guy for that position as opposed to some of the smaller quarterbacks of stature. When they get hit, they roll around to the ground. When he gets it, he absorbs them and it doesn’t look as bad.”
Rivera said he’s had a number of discussions with league officials, including commissioner Roger Goodell. He didn’t get into the specifics of what he heard from New York, but said he thought the league “had responded appropriately.”
Considering that the league has already made it clear they didn’t think Newton was being treated unfairly (or at least, any less competently than 11 other quarterbacks in the league), it’s hard to imagine what satisfaction Rivera got out of the conversation, other than just getting something off his chest.