There might be a meeting between Cam Newton and Roger Goodell about officiating and whether Newton is getting a fair shake of things.
In case you missed it, Newton said he is getting unfairly treated by officials.
Not everyone agrees with him, including former NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira, now an analyst with Fox Sports. Pereira appeared on Undisputed (featuring friend of the program Joy Taylor) and said he thinks Cam Newton is wrong about his allegations that he gets unfairly treated.
Pereira said "numbers don't prove it" and that there's "only one quarterback who's gotten more roughing the passer calls" than Newton, Ryan Fitzpatrick. He then compared the situation to that of Michael Vick, who was playing in his prime while Pereira was in charge of officials.
"To me, it's deja vu. To me it's going back to Michael Vick. They said the same thing about Michael Vick. They used to call me all the time, 'You're not protecting Michael Vick.' What do Michael Vick and Cam Newton have in common? They both like to run. Neither knew how to slide. So they're going to get hit," Pereira said.
"In the pocket's a different story. In the pocket -- but even if you're hit in the pocket doesn't mean it's a foul, right? Cam's got certainly a beef on the low hit yesterday. He's got clearly a beef on that. He got one call for being hit late out of the pocket. That was one I thought even was a little bit iffy. But is this a revelation that the sport is dangerous? I mean, you know, that he doesn't feel safe?"
Here's the thing: How many shots to the knees does Cam need to take? He has been pretty quiet about the NFL letting him get blasted in the head. But he finally got sick of it when Calais Campbell nearly took out his knees, which is the hit Pereira referenced and also the hit the NFL admitted should have been flagged.
And it might not be quite fair to call Newton a whiner, either.
"I kind of get a sense that when I think of Cam, that I love him when things are going good. He's fun to watch, the things he does with handing the balls to kids. But last year we had him getting on Ed Hochuli, Ed Hochuli, he said, told him he was too young and I wasn't going to get the call. Ed Hochuli said you're a runner, you're not going to get the call.
"You're getting to me to have a little bit of consistency of whining here. And I don't like whiners when it comes to me, which I don't think it's deserved."
The issue here for Newton is that if Pereira has this line of thinking, it's entirely possible there are multiple officials who feel the same way. Hochuli probably didn't appreciate Newton calling him out, and the officials involved in Sunday probably didn't like it very much either.
But Newton has to say something, otherwise the treatment might continue. Seems like he's in a real lose-lose situation, although getting out ahead of his concerns before the Panthers play the Rams and a Gregg Williams-coached defense this week is probably a wise move.
"I don't like whiners." - @MikePereira on Cam Newton criticizing officials pic.twitter.com/4pjrR9VIqv
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) October 31, 2016