*Article* Cam Newton’s foot injury underscores the problems with the injury reporting rules

[WarPanthers89]

What are your thoughts? Will we be fined? 

The NFL’s injury reporting rules always have been largely worthless. The recent Cam Newton foot injury proves how worthless, and potentially dangerous to the integrity of the game, they are.

Newton, in a video shot while smoking a cigar and drinking wine, admits that the foot he injured during Week Three of the preseason was still injured during the pair of initial regular-season games played only four days apart.

But here’s the problem: Cam appeared nowhere on the Panthers’ injury report, for Week One or Week Two. The omission sent an unmistakable message that Newton had quickly and completely and totally healed from the foot injury.

Newton admits he had an “obvious limp” at practice prior to the season opener against the Rams. He also admits that, prior to kickoff of the Week One game, he couldn’t perform his ritual of jogging around the field to “mark the territory” before the game. (Fortunately, he didn’t literally mark the territory.)

Then came the short week in advance of the Tampa game, but Cam realized in that four-day turnaround, “I can’t run.”

Still, he didn’t appear on the injury report for either game. Even though he was limping. Even though he was struggling. Even though he lacked his normal abilities.

He claims he was “hiding” the injury. Based on the other things he says in the video, the team clearly should have noticed that something was amiss.

Then there’s the question of whether Cam continued to receive any type of treatment on the foot. If he did and if he wasn’t even mentioned on the injury report, that’s the kind of smoking gun that should trigger league scrutiny and, ultimately, the issuance of fines.

The question then becomes whether the league will do anything about it. In recent years, there’s been a reluctance to acknowledge investigations or discipline for violating the injury-reporting rules. Maybe the league doesn’t want people to realize how incomplete the injury reports are. Maybe the league doesn’t want to acknowledge publicly that plenty of teams hide injuries.

Regardless, teams hide injuries. Which proves that, regardless of what’s in the report, inside information exists — and it has real value, especially in an age of legalized gambling.

Think of it this way. How many people would have bet on the Panthers to beat the Rams or bet on the Panthers to beat the Bucs if they’d known that Newton’s foot was so bad that he couldn’t even push off on fourth and short? I know I wouldn’t have picked them to win both games, and others who pick games as part of their coverage of the league would probably have felt the same way.

The more problematic reality is this. Somewhere, someone knew the truth. And that someone likely placed a not-so-insignificant bet based on the truth. And that someone quite possibly watched the video of Cam drinking win and smoking a cigar while drinking wine and smoking a cigar lit with a flaming $100 bill.

Article by: Mark Florio 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/09/28/cam-newtons-foot-injury-underscores-the-problems-with-the-injury-reporting-rules/

 

 

[Mr. Scot]

FYI: It's Mike, dude.

Make of it what you will (or won't) but Newton is it least potentially sharing information that could get Rivera and the team investigated by the league.

[Seoul_Panther]

 Its a pity that Cam is either unaware or uncaring about the injury reporting rules. It doesn't seem very professional to me.

 It may not be much of a big deal to people who are willing to forgive him anything. I hope that Cam and the Panthers get fined. They'll probably laugh it off.

  Perhaps more worrying is that the team still don't seem to have a very good grasp of player injury status. Maybe they need to go a bit less on player assurance and a bit more on their own assessment. This is certainly a danger of the RR 'trust the vets' policy.

[Mr. Scot]

4 minutes ago, Seoul_Panther said:

 Its a pity that Cam is either unaware or uncaring about the injury reporting rules. It doesn't seem very professional to me.

 It may not be much of a big deal to people who are willing to forgive him anything. I hope that Cam and the Panthers get fined. They'll probably laugh it off.

Or, if you put your tinfoil hat on, perhaps he's tattling on somebody.

No way to know if that's the case, but it's possible.

[Bartin]

At worst we might get some inconsequential fine but more likely just a warning if they even decide to investigate for anyone wondering about any possible punishment.

Florio writes this same article like 6 times a year whenever something similar happens. Nothing happens and I really don’t know why he is so obsessed with the subject.

[Mr. Scot]

4 minutes ago, Bartin said:

At worst we might get some inconsequential fine but more likely just a warning if they even decide to investigate for anyone wondering about any possible punishment.

Florio writes this same article like 6 times a year whenever something similar happens. Nothing happens and I really don’t know why he is so obsessed with the subject.

Same reason he spent years trying to convince some top draft pick to sit the season out.

He certainly has legitimate contacts and sources, but he's not truly a journalist. He's more of a sh-t stirrer. He's always pushing for stuff that would make big headlines to happen.

[Seoul_Panther]

7 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

Or, if you put your tinfoil hat on, perhaps he's tattling on somebody.

No way to know if that's the case, but it's possible.

Very true. Of course by making this statement he also makes himself look a little bad. He obviously either didn't consider this or doesn't care what anyone thinks of him which is his prerogative I guess. It's not an attitude that i love to see in a franchise figurehead, but that's his choice.

[rayzor]

Rivera and company are doing the same blind poo they did last year that Tepper had to force (like we saw on all or nothing). It was obvious to all watching that Cam was hurting and it's the coaching staff's responsibility, in the team's best interest, to sit the I injured player.

Ron doesn't do it unless forced to by his boss or the player saying "I can't go".

Ron, you're a grown ass man in charge of the team. You pay attention to your players. 

If we can all see it as casual viewers in limited tiime, how can you not see it?  Open your eyes and use some damn common sense. Just because a player says he's good to go and wants to tough it out doesn't mean he should. Make the call, man. Make the call.

[Waldo]

If we lose picks because of the way we handle injuries in house, I'll be pissed. For years the image of JR and Ron were of stand up people that handle things on the up and up. Just goes to show what a public image is worth. I'm sure Ron was privy to worse situations as a player in the 80's but that doesn't count as an adequate excuse for his management skills.

At this point it is looking willful. I don't know if this is post JR or it's a leak from the dam he built, but it's a bad look. With this video a lot has come to light that has just been speculated on and there are openings for punishment from the NFL. 

[WarPanthers89]

You would think that the Panthers would review his video though and see that his comments could cause an issue. The video was clearly edited 7k times and cut up.

[mc52beast]

There’s only one reason for teams being forced to report injuries and it’s not because Goodell and his clown posse cares about the players;

 

Plain and simple it’s about gambling.

[WarPanthers89]

1 minute ago, mc52beast said:

There’s only one reason for teams being forced to report injuries and it’s not because Goodell and his clown posse cares about the players;

 

Plain and simple it’s about gambling.

Bingo

[Waldo]

There are a lot more savvy ways to work the injury reporting system.

[Bartin]

I do wonder if the team was aware that Cam was putting out this video. Generally, teams are not happy with players fully disclosing their injuries. Cam is given a ton of leeway from the team to basically do what he wants but if they didn’t know he might get a talking to.