Rivera tired of talking about Newton’s status
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Carolina Panthers have yet to make an official decision on Cam Newton’s status for this weekend, and coach Ron Rivera indicated by word and deed Friday that he’s tired of talking about it.
Newton missed his third consecutive day of practice on Thursday, a week after he re-injured his left foot in the team’s loss to Tampa Bay. Newton first sustained that left foot sprain in Week 3 of the preseason, and he missed about a week’s worth of practices as a result.
If Newton is unavailable for Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals, then second-year passer Kyle Allen would start in his place. But Coach Ron Rivera said Thursday he wasn’t ready to name a starter.
“Nope. Cam was in meetings today. He was inside for treatment,” Rivera said. “Kyle’s preparing as if he’s going to start, and we’ll have more clarity tomorrow.
“Tomorrow we should have a good feel for where he is, and we’ll go forward from there.”
While Newton was not at practice Thursday, he was briefly spotted in the team’s locker room with a boot on his left foot. Newton has been in that boot since Tuesday.
When questions about Newton persisted in Rivera’s daily press conference, the coach asked politely for any additional questions about anything besides Newton.
“I’m not going to talk about it anymore, guys,” Rivera said. “I mean, let’s talk about Arizona. I mean, haven’t really talked about Arizona, so it would be good to answer those kind of questions.”
Questions about Newton persisted, leading to Rivera calmly walking out of his press conference. The entire session lasted just two minutes and 15 seconds.
“I just asked you to ask me questions about somebody else,” he said on his way out. “I’m not gonna do this anymore, OK? I told you, I won’t know anything until tomorrow. OK? Thank you.”