NFL confirms no concussion for Cam
When quarterback Cam Newton got walloped in the upper body late in the Carolina Panthers’ NFC wild-card playoff loss at New Orleans, he at first turned on to his right side.
Slowly, he had to be helped to his feet by two teammates. All the while, Fox’s video closeups showed Newton squinting hard, repeatedly. Was he dazed? Seemed so.
Then as Newton jogged toward the sideline he didn’t make it all the way, instead awkwardly dropping to one knee, then rolling to a sitdown position with both legs fully extended forward, as two team medical staff tended to him.
Did he wobble because he was concussed? No, the NFL announced on Wednesday.
A joint review conducted by the league and the players union concluded that Newton was not concussed, and that there was no violation of the league’s latest concussion-diagnosis conventions.
What actually happened, the statement said, was the following:
Newton “sustained an abrasion over his right eye and foreign matter” entered his right eye “as a result of the tackle by Saints’ David Onyemata, who collided with Newton head-high as the QB swung away from another sacker. Newton’s own helmet jammed into his right eye area, apparently. All medical personnel on the Panthers’ sideline confirmed these eye issues.
At “no point during the incident” did Newton “report or display any signs of a concussion, or that would require a lockerroom evaluation.”
Newton took a knee while jogging off the field because he was instructed to do so. Newton “did not lose his balance or trip as he went to the turf,” the statement said.
According to all medical personnel, Newton did not display “gross motor instability,” which would have necessitated an immediate, detailed locker-room evaluation for a concussion.
And, the awkward way in which Newton dropped to the turf was a result of a right-knee injury he was playing through.