The NFL’s injury reporting rules always have been largely worthless. The recent Cam Newton foot injury proves how worthless, and potentially dangerous to the integrity of the game, they are.
Newton, in a video shot while smoking a cigar and drinking wine, admits that the foot he injured during Week Three of the preseason was still injured during the pair of initial regular-season games played only four days apart.
But here’s the problem: Cam appeared nowhere on the Panthers’ injury report, for Week One or Week Two. The omission sent an unmistakable message that Newton had quickly and completely and totally healed from the foot injury.
Newton admits he had an “obvious limp” at practice prior to the season opener against the Rams. He also admits that, prior to kickoff of the Week One game, he couldn’t perform his ritual of jogging around the field to “mark the territory” before the game. (Fortunately, he didn’t literally mark the territory.)
Then came the short week in advance of the Tampa game, but Cam realized in that four-day turnaround, “I can’t run.”
Still, he didn’t appear on the injury report for either game. Even though he was limping. Even though he was struggling. Even though he lacked his normal abilities.
He claims he was “hiding” the injury. Based on the other things he says in the video, the team clearly should have noticed that something was amiss.
Then there’s the question of whether Cam continued to receive any type of treatment on the foot. If he did and if he wasn’t even mentioned on the injury report, that’s the kind of smoking gun that should trigger league scrutiny and, ultimately, the issuance of fines.
The question then becomes whether the league will do anything about it. In recent years, there’s been a reluctance to acknowledge investigations or discipline for violating the injury-reporting rules. Maybe the league doesn’t want people to realize how incomplete the injury reports are. Maybe the league doesn’t want to acknowledge publicly that plenty of teams hide injuries.
Regardless, teams hide injuries. Which proves that, regardless of what’s in the report, inside information exists — and it has real value, especially in an age of legalized gambling.
Think of it this way. How many people would have bet on the Panthers to beat the Rams or bet on the Panthers to beat the Bucs if they’d known that Newton’s foot was so bad that he couldn’t even push off on fourth and short? I know I wouldn’t have picked them to win both games, and others who pick games as part of their coverage of the league would probably have felt the same way.
The more problematic reality is this. Somewhere, someone knew the truth. And that someone likely placed a not-so-insignificant bet based on the truth. And that someone quite possibly watched the video of Cam drinking win and smoking a cigar while drinking wine and smoking a cigar lit with a flaming $100 bill.