Under Armour must be proud Cam Newton's living their "protect this house" motto. It's sort of a silly thing to be talking about this week, yet here we are, so let's take this step by step.

After the Panthers had knocked Seattle out of the playoffs in January, Newton was running a celebratory lap at Bank of America Stadium. When he saw a Seahawks fan waving a "12th man" flag, this happened:

Fast forward to the present with the Panthers reeling at 4-7 heading into their matchup with 7-3-1 Seattle. And that leads us to Wednesday, when a reporter with a good memory and/or a good understanding of Richard Sherman asked the talkative cornerback if Newton's crossed the line with his flag toss.

"Yeah, he probably did," Sherman said. "I guess karma gets you. It doesn’t look like you’re going to be in the playoffs this year."

Naturally, Newton was asked for his response Thursday.

"Where was the flag at? Was it at our house?" he asked rhetorically.

When reminded that, yes, that game was indeed in Charlotte, Newton replied:

"Oh, OK. It's irrelevant what he says right now. I have a lot of respect for Richard and I don't think that has nothing to do with karma that another opposing team's flag was in my stadium. Simple."

And that'll likely wrap up the latest edition of #12thManFlagGate. But give Sherman credit – he got the Panthers to respond.

"He knows that doing that could create a diversion more so than anything else," Panthers coach Ron Rivera said.

"I don't know if that's got anything to do with karma as much as Richard Sherman's a smart guy and just trying to create a little something."