Cam Newton’s father is not happy with the officiating in Thursday night’s game, saying there’s “a bias, a hidden bias” against his son.
Reacting to the Broncos getting away with multiple hits to Cam’s head, Cecil Newton Sr. said that he sees his son getting treated differently than other quarterbacks. Cecil Newton mentioned several white quarterbacks whom he sees getting protected by the officials better than Cam does, although Newton did not say race is necessarily the reason.
“I’m not just going to always say it’s race; I’m not going to keep fanning the flames of race in every situation,” Cecil Newton told ESPN. “But it causes me to wonder. Help me understand through transparency. Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL, help me understand how this can happen to the reigning MVP. Explain that to me. I’m not going to fan the flames of race in this particular category, but I really sit back and ask myself, ‘Would this have happened to some of his other fellow colleagues?’ Let the public answer the question for themselves.”
Cecil Newton said there’s no question in his mind that his son fails to get the protections that other quarterbacks get.
“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,” Newton’s father 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. People throw all these jingles out there about he’s mobile, he’s bigger, he’s more physical. There’s a lot of this and that. At the end of the day, Cam deserves to be protected just like Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Ryan Tannehill, Kirk Cousins, Andy Dalton, and the list goes on and on. I know a good hit when I see a good hit. I was a defensive player, and I played the game at the highest level as well. But when you deliberately target and when you’re constantly being hit after the ball is out, I question the intent of the defensive player, and I question the official.”
Cecil Newton called on the NFL to improve its officiating.
“These guys have to do a better, unbiased job. I don’t want it to necessarily be because he’s a black quarterback. But it causes you to wonder -- are you really biased or have some hidden reason,” he said.
Cecil Newton is clearly right that there were multiple illegal hits on his son that did not get called. Whatever the reasons, that’s a problem the NFL needs to fix.