Did anyone see Cam Newton join the huddle in street clothes?

I saw on tv who I believe the head of referees Dean Blandino asked if this was a penalty. He basically said its against the rules but the ref warned Cams coach Rivera and that was good enough instead of penalizing him. I am sick of this league at least not owning up to its mistakes. Dean should have said yes, the ref made a mistake and should have flagged the Panthers. There is no judgement call here. It's a penalty, fact. Reminds me of how the head of referees (forgot his name, I think Periera) made excuse after excuse a day after XL as to why each penalty or bad call was made. Refs are spoked to be honest. I would hope their bosses would be too.

Not sure I agree.

It's an infraction that has no affect on the game. Refs are known sometimes to warn players btw of real infractions early in games (off. holding comes to mind) before the flags really start coming out.

I think a warning is fine, and moving forward a penalty every time.

And I say this as someone who doesn't particularly like Newton.

Attention whores gonna be an attention whore, whatcha gonna do? Slap him upside the back of the head and tell him to get back to the sidelines.