Panthers quarterback Cam Newton made it clear this week that he doesn't feel like he's being protected when he's on the field. According to Newton, officials are letting opposing players take free shots at him with no repercussions.
If there's one quarterback in the NFL who might agree with Newton's take that officials aren't doing enough to protect QBs, you'd think that guy would be Russell Wilson. From 2012 to 2015, the Seahawks quarterback took 349 hits, which was more than Newton took during that same span.
Despite all the hits he's taken, Wilson has no gripes with the way his games are being officiated. The Seahawks quarterback also added that if he didn't want to get hit, he'd be playing a different sport.
"I just try to play smart football," Wilson said, via ESPN.com. "I think I've said this before, but if I didn't want to play football, if I didn't want to get hit, I'd be playing tennis. That's just one of those things -- you know you're going to get hit, and you know you're going to take some tough hits every once in a while, and you have to hang in there. At the same time, it's a rough game, and you always want to make a smart decision and get down, get out of bounds."
Just because he doesn't share Newton's view, Wilson wanted to make it clear that he wasn't knocking Newton for complaining.
"I haven't seen his particular situation," Wilson said. "Honestly, I try to stay away from watching ESPN and all that, but I know for me -- trying to get down, slide, get out of bounds, all of that, because those guys are chasing after you."
The Seahawks quarterback is the second player this week who has basically said players just need to "deal with it" when it comes to taking hits.
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is another player who's been hit plenty of times, and as one of his teammates pointed out on Monday, Big Ben never complains.
"Ben gets hit more than anybody in the league and he never complains. C'mon man. This is the game of football," Steelers offensive lineman Marcus Gilbert said, via ESPN.com. "If you're out there and you're scared to take a shot, then don't be out there, especially if you're a running quarterback."
Basically, it sounds like other players view Newton as whiner who needs to realize that he's going to get hit because he's playing a sport where getting hit is part of the game.
Newton met with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Wednesday and is hoping that he'll start seeing a few more calls go his way. However, that might not happen, because according to the NFL, the calls were never going against him. After going through all of Newton's games this season, the league says that officials only missed two roughing-the-passer calls in games involving Newton.
