Panthers' Rivera: I benched Newton to keep chaos from consuming team

Ron Rivera is still explaining himself for benching his star quarterback in a crucial game on Sunday.

The Carolina Panthers head coach began his Wednesday press conference by asking the press to refrain from asking any questions about his decision to sit Cam Newton for the first series of their game against the Seattle Seahawks because he didn't wear a tie on the team flight, but he couldn't avoid the hot topic.

"Apparently, doing what you're supposed to do doesn't seem to explain the situation, set of circumstances. So I'm going to address this one last time. OK?" Rivera said, David Newton of ESPN reports.

"Again, I made a decision based on rules. Treat everybody the same. The reason you do it, especially when you're having a tough season, is because if you don't, chaos, it can consume your football team. The idea was to do the right thing, treat everybody the same. I've done it before where I've had to treat people the same, and that's all I've done. That's the end of it."

With that statement, Rivera appears to confirm that the team's losing season played a role in the situation. Who knows how things would have been handled if and had it transpired during the Panthers 15-1 campaign of a year ago.

Several beat writers also reported that Newton did not speak to the media on Wednesday, though he usually does.