Ron Rivera was fed up.
The Carolina Panthers head coach walked out of his press conference Thursday after roughly two and a half minutes of being peppered with questions about injured quarterback Cam Newton’s status for Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals.
When Rivera tried to change the subject and got another question about Newton, who re-aggravated a foot sprain in Week 2, Rivera walked off the podium.
“I just asked you to ask me questions about somebody else. I’m not gonna do this anymore, OK?” Rivera said. “I told you, I won’t know anything until tomorrow, OK? Thank you. Golly.”
Rivera, 57, began his presser by saying Newton was in meetings Thursday while 23-year-old backup Kyle Allen was preparing to start and he’d know more about Newton on Friday.
Asked if Newton, 30, would travel to Arizona regardless of his status, Rivera said, “You guys want to sit there and watch, so you’ll have to wait and see. I’m not gonna talk about it anymore, guys. Let’s talk about Arizona.”
A testy Rivera responded to a follow-up by saying, “I know it’s about Cam, but I won’t know any more until tomorrow. So let’s talk about Arizona. If not, there’s no reason for me to stand here.”
The head coach was then asked where his confidence level was on Newton after he said before the season opener that he was 100% confident in Newton. That’s when Rivera decided he had enough.