The Panthers won for the first time in six weeks Sunday, but coach Ron Rivera is spending more time addressing Sundays on-field melee.
With 6:41 left in the first quarter of the Carolinas 41-10 rout of New Orleans, the teams tangled in the end zone after Cam Newton scored on a 2-yard run.
Saints linebacker Curtis Lofton took exception to Newtons Superman celebration, which was done directly in front of Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan, and shoved Newton, sparking the incident that resulted in the ejection of Panthers tight end Brandon Williams and a personal foul penalty on Lofton.
"I don't think the intent was to do it in the guy's face," Rivera said in his Monday press conference. The guy just happened to be there. You could say that about any time a guy does a celebration because there's 11 defenders on the field. A guy turns and does whatever they do, that's it.
"The biggest thing is Cam didn't use the ball, he didn't use a prop. He just did his thing. So be it."
Rivera also said Lofton should have hit the showers along with Williams.
"He isn't the one that started it," Rivera said. "If you're going to throw one guy out, you've got to throw the other guy out that started it. Especially because they [officials] saw the guy start it."
Despite the ejection, Rivera liked how his team dealt with the situation.
"Unfortunately, we got a guy thrown out for being a little over-aggressive," Rivera said. "That's unfortunate. But we stood up for ourselves and that's the approach. I appreciate that as far as our guys are concerned. We didn't walk away from anybody. We stood our ground."
Source: http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2014-12-09/ron-rivera-defends-cam-newton-fight-panthers-saints-williams-ejection-jordan-lofton
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