‘Golly’: Ron Rivera leaves presser when pressed on Cam Newton’s health

All Ron Rivera wants to do is talk about the Arizona Cardinals.

Perhaps the Carolina Panthers head coach didn’t get his necessary daily intake on Thursday ahead of the two teams’ Week 3 matchup at State Farm stadium.

More likely, Rivera just didn’t want to talk about the health status of Cam Newton, his starting quarterback who is dealing with a re-sprained foot.

Newton was in meetings and went through treatments Thursday during practice, and Rivera said to start his press conference that the team will have “more clarity” about Newton’s status on Friday.

But after a few questions about tight end Greg Olsen’s health and how it bodes for the Cardinals game, the reporters’ questions turned back to Newton.

Then the presser took a sharp turn.

Ron Rivera is at the podium https://t.co/kt8yMG2836

— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) September 19, 2019

Asked if Newton will travel with the team in any case, Rivera grew a little more agitated.

“See, you guys want to sit there and watch so you’ll have to wait and see,” he said. “I’m not going to talk about it anymore, guys. Let’s talk about Arizona. I haven’t really talked about Arizona so it would be good to answer those kind of questions.”

A reporter then began explaining that Newton, as the starting quarterback, is an important storyline.

“I know it’s about Cam,” Rivera said, cutting the reporter off. “I don’t know anymore until tomorrow so let’s talk about Arizona. If not, there’s no reason for me to stand here.”

Then came the big whopper of a question. The head coach was asked why he said before the home opener that Newton’s foot injury suffered in the preseason was not an issue.

“I just asked you to ask some questions about somebody else,” Rivera said before walking out of the room.

“I’m not going to do this anymore. I told you, I won’t know anything more until tomorrow. OK? Thank you. Golly!”

That was a different tone from Rivera compared to Wednesday, when during a teleconference call with Cardinals reporters had a humorous attitude about keeping Newton’s status under wraps.

The coach was asked if he could update the reporters in Tempe about Newton’s health status.

“Uh, nope!” Rivera said, drawing laughter.

It seems he’s gotten a little more fed-up since.

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