Ron Rivera: ‘Unfair’ to second-guess decision to play injured Cam Newton

The Carolina Panthers continue to defend the decision to play Cam Newton late in the season despite a shoulder injury, with coach Ron Rivera taking his turn.

Rivera once again drew distinction between Newton’s injury and Luke Kuechly’s, essentially shrugging off the decision by noting that hindsight is 20-20.

“Well, I know it’s 20-20. To make that call now is unfair,” Rivera said, via Darin Gantt of ProFootballTalk, before noting that Newton threw for 300 yards and two touchdowns the week after the injury.

Rivera rejected comparisons between letting Newton play and sitting Kuechly even after he’d been cleared by the league’s concussion protocol.

“I don’t think I need to reconcile that much, because they’re two different athletes, two different injuries, two different sets of circumstances more than anything else,” Rivera said. “The biggest thing more than anything else was listening to what the doctors told us, is the reason we did what we did.”

The comments are similar to these made by the team’s general manager the week before. In reality, Newton probably shouldn’t have played. There was no reason to push it.