'Enough is enough': Cam Newton plans to talk to Roger Goodell about hits

Cam Newton is one of the most dynamic players in the NFL, at times looking like a man among boys. And as a result, he may not get the kinds of calls that smaller, slower players would. But he’s not playing against boys, he’s playing against the toughest athletes in the world … and he’s had enough of them hitting him without getting penalized.

The latest exhibit: Calais Campbell hitting Newton low on Sunday and escaping without a flag, a shot Newton called “the breaking point.” After the game, Newton was incensed, vowing to talk to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell about the hits he continues to take.

“The story of my life ever since I came in is, ‘Oh, oh well we missed that one, I’m sorry, we’ll try to get it.’ That’s bullcrap, that’s bullcrap,” Newton said after the game.

“As players in this league, we do something stupid, we get fined. If we do something derogatory to somebody else, we get fined. I just can’t keep accepting, ‘Oh we missed that one’ or ‘I apologize for doing that’ or ‘I didn’t see it’ — that’s horsecrap. That’s horsecrap. And coming from a person that’s been fined before, coming from a person that everybody is expecting a lot from, and I’m still growing. But yet when you constantly see the hits, constantly see flags being picked up, and you constantly see flags getting thrown, and to see other quarterbacks getting it, lesser hits, lesser physical hits, then it’s taking the fun for me out. I’m just being honest with that.”

Newton’s going to get grief for this, with fans saying he’s a crybaby, shut up and take the hits, you get paid a lot to get knocked around, blah blah. The issue, as with so much else in the NFL, is one of accountability and hypocrisy. Newton’s right; you can’t flag players for wearing the wrong cleats or daring to show emotion when scoring a touchdown and then allow officials to skate on their own responsibilities.

Carolina is, at long last, showing flashes of becoming the team that owned the NFC last year. It’ll be interesting to see if Newton’s attempt to influence the refs has any impact on the team’s fortunes going forward.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION, on sale now at Amazon or wherever books are sold. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.comor find him on Twitter or on Facebook.