The NFL does not agree with Cam Newton‘s assessment of the officiating and lack of calls in his favor.
Since Week 1, Newton has taken a number of brutal hits from opposing players. But, rather than receive targeting or personal foul calls, a number of them haven't been flagged. The argument is that other high-profile quarterbacks, like Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers, would get flags for their teams on those occasions.
One play on Sunday set Cam off again. The Cardinals‘ Calais Campbell lunged low at Newton's legs, which is specifically a foul thanks to the Carson Palmer incident in the 2005 playoffs. But, once again, no flag was thrown.
After the game, Cam said he didn't feel protected by the referees on the field, and he planned to talk to the league about the issue.
Said Newton: "I could have torn an ACL. That was the breaking point for me."
— Steve Reed (@SteveReedAP) October 30, 2016
Cam: 'It's really taking the fun out of the game for me. At times, it's not safe. I'm going to talk to commissioner Goodell about this.'
— Mike Persinger (@mikepersinger) October 30, 2016
However, as Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio reports, the NFL feels differently.
According to their assessment, Cam Newton is actually faring much better than other quarterbacks, with respect to missed calls.
From Florio:
From the league’s perspective, the officials have missed three roughing calls on Cam since the start of the 2013 season. (Yes, that seems low.) Eleven other quarterbacks, by the league’s count, have had more missed roughing calls: Jay Cutler, Alex Smith, Geno Smith, Josh McCown, Andrew Luck, Matt Ryan, Kirk Cousins, Joe Flacco, Ben Roethlisberger, Case Keenum, and Ryan Tannehill.
Three missed calls seems quite low for a three-year span. But, the message to Cam from the NFL is simple: you're not treated any differently than the rest of the league's quarterbacks.
Whether that's actually true is certainly up for debate.
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