ntial in that range for improvement. It seemed like an area he cou

The NFL says its all about player safety.Try telling that to Cam Newton, one of the leagues biggest stars.The way the Carolina Panthers quarterback was beaten up in a season-opening loss at Denver, one would think it is back to open season on anyone wearing a helmet and shoulder pads.If nothing else, it showed that Newton is subject to a different set of rules than the leagues other QBs.Can you imagine Tom Brady or Drew Brees taking four helmet-to-helmet hits -- including two where the defender appeared to leave his feet and launch himself into Newton -- with only a single flag being dropped?We cant either.Clearly, the NFLs epiphany on player health -- which the jaded will note only came at the prodding of a massive lawsuit brought by former players whose lives were ruined by repeated hits to the head -- still hasnt gone far enough.Weve got to treat Cam like a quarterback, Panthers tight end Greg Olsen said after Thursday nights Super Bowl rematch, won by the Broncos 21-20. I know hes the biggest guy on the field, but hes still a quarterback.Its only natural that the officials see Newton, as imposing a quarterback as there is at 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds, in a different light than his mostly smaller counterparts.And, to be sure, Newtons running ability puts him in harms way a lot more often than a pure drop-back passer.The guy is a ... tight end, defensive end playing quarterback. What are we supposed to do? said Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall, who doled out a couple of egregious hits on Newton. When hes running the ball -- theyve got quarterback-designed runs, quarterback keeps, quarterback powers, draws, everything -- were going to treat him like a running back.Thats no reason for the officials to continually look the other way.In the short term, the league needs to immediately send out an edict to its officials that ALL quarterbacks are deserving of the same protections, as well as launch an urgent review of its concussion protocol after Newton went through the entire game without being tested, even after all those brutal hits.Never mind that the Panthers said he was tested four times afterward and all were negative.The next player might not be so lucky.Longer term, the league needs to seriously consider following the college game, which has brought down the hammer on targeting. When a player initiates a hit with the top of the helmet, leaves his feet to deliver a blow or levels a defenseless player, he is ejected from the game and has to sit out the first half of the next game as well. In addition, his team receives a 15-yard penalty.All targeting calls are automatically subject to a video review, a necessary step in a violent game thats nearly impossible to keep a handle on in real time. While the targeting rule still has its share of hiccups, the replay system helps to weed out the calls that are blatantly wrong, an important safeguard when a foul comes with such stiff penalties.At the very least, the NFL needs to expand its replay system to help officials determine which hits are truly dangerous.I think as far as big hits on quarterbacks or hits to the helmet, I think that would be important and I think eventually it is going to come that, Carolina coach Ron Rivera said Friday. If there is a questionable call, you have to go to replay just to make sure. Again, this is about player safety at the end of the day, so we have to find a better solution to keep these things down to a minimum.The NFL already determined that Marshall shouldve been penalized for his second hit to Newtons head after the quarterback had thrown a pass, according to a person speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the league doesnt comment publicly on the details of such reviews.That could lead to a hefty fine.Big deal.The league needs to show its at least as concerned about player safety as it is about deflated footballs.Immediately after the game, Newton shrugged off the beatdown he received, saying it wasnt his job to question the officials. Maybe he was still groggy. Maybe hes gotten so used to being subjected to a different standard that he expects it.I try and warn the refs every time I do get hit in the head, he said. But if the flag is not thrown, then its OK.No, its not.The league should be watching out for all its players, even those who seem big enough and strong enough to take care of themselves.Its kind of been like that since hes been here, Carolina linebacker Thomas Davis said. They judge him different. They look at him different.Thats got to change.Week 2 would be a good time to start.---Paul Newberry is a national writer for The Associated Press. Write to him at pnewberry(at)ap.org or at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963 . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/paul-newberry .---AP Sports Writers Steve Reed in Charlotte and Arnie Stapleton in Denver contributed to this report.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL Corey Davis Womens Jersey . -- Hunter Smith scored the winner with just 12 seconds remaining in the third period as the Oshawa Generals edged the host Sarnia Sting 5-4 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League action. Jurrell Casey Womens Jersey . -- The Bishops Gaiters are showing they belong among the countrys top varsity football teams. http://www.titansstoreonline.com/Black-20-Kevin-Byard-Womens-Jersey/ . -- When the Florida Panthers fell behind by two goals in the first period to the top team in the NHL, it appeared they were on their way to yet another loss. Eddie George Youth Jersey . Now that hes hitting streaking teammates with pin-point passes for easy layups, Love is asserting himself as one of the true superstars in the league. Eddie George Titans Jersey . Vettel was 0.168 seconds faster than Red Bull teammate Mark Webber around the Suzuka circuit. Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was two tenths of a second off Vettel. "The car balance is decent, but I think we can still improve," Vettel said. It was just over six months ago when Brendan Steele was lining up putt after putt from specifically measured distances on the Bay Hill Club & Lodge practice green in advance of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, part of a newly implemented regimen.Dave was looking at my stats, he explained that afternoon. He said I need to make more from this range.The range was 8 to 16 feet, and the Dave in question wasnt a putting guru, a short-game coach or even a fellow PGA Tour player.It was Dave Phoenix Farrell, bassist for the popular rock band Linkin Park.Previously mutual fans of each other -- Steele enjoys the bands music; Farrell is a 4 handicap who watches a lot of PGA Tour golf -- they met through a mutual friend backstage at a Linkin Park concert two years ago.They quickly developed a friendship assisted by geography. When neither is on tour, they live about 20 minutes from each other in Southern California. Not long after that first meeting, they regularly started playing golf together.As the friendship grew, Farrell started watching Steele more closely. He pored over statistics and soon began tracking all of his rounds in notebooks, calculating the percentage of putts made from various distance ranges in scribbles along the way, like a golf version of A Beautiful Mind.I just started thinking the difference between him shooting 62 and his usual 67 or whatever is that makeable-range putt, Farrell explained. I noticed that when we were playing. Then I started looking at PGA Tour statistics, which include make percentages of all the different ranges. One that I found was 8 to 16 feet.Employing Moneyball-type analytics, he discovered that the PGA Tour leader from this range made right around 30 percent of his attempts. The average was about 20 percent.Steele? He checked in at just over 10 percent.I saw that he was averaging five-six putts per round in this range, Farrell continued. I dont know that much about golf or statistics, but I could see the variance potential in that range for improvement. It seemed like an area he could go out and practice.Based on ball-striking numbers remaining consistent, he proposed that Steele only needed to reach that average percentage and he would increase his number of top-10 finishes. Making the same rate as the tour leader would result in more top-fives. And if he really got the putter going, he would start winning.This wasnt an insignificant line of demarcation. In the season that just ended, Steele captured 11 top-25 results in 25 starts, but just two top-10s. Meanwwhile, his 2011 triumph at the Valero Texas Open as a rookie remained his lone career victory.ddddddddddddComplicating this idea -- or perhaps just explaining it better -- was the fact that Steele is a former anchored putter who is no longer allowed to use that method under Rule 14-1b.When approached with his buddys idea, Steele didnt shrug it off or pay him lip service. He didnt even just listen. Instead, he started consciously working to improve his putting from this range.I know it sounds strange to be taking putting advice from a rock star, but Dave is a really smart guy and he loves both golf and statistics, Steele explained. When he came to me with the numbers it made a ton of sense, so I started paying attention to the data. I took the data to one of my coaches, Chris Mayson, and he developed some drills that focus on that length of putt.Fast forward to this past weeks season-opening Safeway Open.One year earlier, Steele entered the final round of this tournament with the lead, only to post a 4-over 76 and finish in a share of 17th place. That bitter taste gradually rinsing from his mouth, he opened with rounds of 67-71-67 this year, placing himself within striking distance once again going into the final day.Trailing by a few strokes, he holed an essential 13-footer for a par save on the ninth hole. Birdies at 16 and 17 moved him into a share of the lead entering the par-5 18th. After laying up with his second shot, Steele hit a wedge shot to exactly 8 feet -- the starting point of the range Farrell had first proposed to him.He made it.And when no player in the final few groups could match his 18-under total, Steele had claimed a second career victory.How important was his putting from that range of 8 to 16 feet? For the week, he holed nine of 19 -- or 47 percent.That range putt was a huge part of my success this week, Steele said. It was a much higher percentage than I have on an average week. We have found that the 8-16 foot range has both enough frequency and enough probability of a made putt to make a big difference in your score.As for the rock star, a guy whos written dozens of hit songs and played to sold-out shows around the world, he took satisfaction in helping his friend win again, in any way he could.Ive never tried to hide it, he laughed of his inner math nerd. Whenever people meet any of us in the band, they find theres a lot of normal going on. 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