QB Joe Webb, was one of the first Panthers who went to see Newton at the hospital:

“I didn’t know how to take it. Everybody was calling my phone. At first, I didn’t know what happened. First thing that went through my mind was, ‘I hope he’s fine. I hope there’s no life-threatening injuries … We real close, basically like brothers. I’ve been hanging around him since I first got here during OTAs. It was like someone stabbed me in the heart when I heard of it.”

QB Derek Anderson:

“I was getting ready to head over here and watch tape and my phone started blowing up, ‘Is he all right? Is he all right?’ I’m like, ‘What are you guys talking about?’ Then I turned the TV on and didn’t really know what to think at first. Obviously, you’re worried. You see what happened to the car. And then when you get to the end of it and figure out what happened, it was quite scary.”

WR Kelvin Benjamin, along with Webb and Philly Brown, was one of the first players who rushed to the hospital

“I was scared. The first thing I heard was what I saw on Twitter. I was devastated. I just wanted to see about his well-being. But once I found out he was ok, that was a relief.”

WR Philly Brown:

“The first thing I did was call Kelvin to try to get in touch with everybody and get to the hospital as soon as possible. That’s obviously one of our best friends since we’ve been here, so there’s definitely a sense of relief that he’s doing better.”

WR Brenton Bersin:

“It just sucks for him. Everybody’s thinking about football, who’s going to start and what not, and we probably should just be thinking about his health, to be honest.”

WR Jerricho Cotchery, was in a serious car accident when he was 16:

“It completely changed the way I looked at life. Anytime you have a life-threatening situation, it puts a lot of things in perspective. So for me, it’s something that I think about constantly, day-by-day, appreciating the gift of life. And I think he’s pretty thankful right now.”

OT Byron Bell:

“In incidents like that you look at the bad first, and then hopefully everything is good, … The good Lord blessed everybody to come out alive. If he plays Sunday, I’m not concerned about that, but when I saw the pictures, I just got down and prayed.”

K Graham Gano:

“The truck looked bad. I knew it was his truck. But then I saw him smiling in that picture, he had the same old cheesy grin that he normally has, so I thought he was going to be all right.”

Coach Ron Rivera:

“We had just finished game-planning, and I was settling in to have lunch. Somebody came in and said something, and my first thought was that hoax thing that had come up before, … When you see the pictures, there is a sense of relief. Thank goodness he was the only occupant, too because the passenger side took a pretty good wallop. But he’s very fortunate; we’re very fortunate, and the other driver’s very fortunate. Thank goodness this was not more serious.”

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