NFL drops matter between Panthers’ QB Cam Newton and ref Ed Hochuli

Unless audio surfaces to support Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton's claim that referee Ed Hochuli said he "wasn't old enough" to get a personal foul call in Sunday's win over the New Orleans Saints, the NFL won't look into the matter further, a league source told ESPN.com on Tuesday.

Newton, 26, thought a late hit should have been called early in the fourth quarter when he was shoved to the ground by Saints defensive end Tyeler Davision near the out-of-bounds marker while throwing an incomplete pass. Newton claims that when he complained to the muscle-bound Hochuli, the response he received was, "Cam, you're not old enough to get that call."

"I looked at him like: 'Jesus! I didn't think you had to have seniority to get a personal foul or anything like that,'" Newton said. "If he would have said he missed the call, that is one thing, but for his response to be what it was and I'm not old enough to get that call... Geez!"

NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino told the NFL Network on Monday that Hochuli could be disciplined if the league found him to have said what Newton claimed. But Blandino said he spoke with Hochuli and that the referee was "adamant" he did not make that comment.

"He told me that he said, 'The difference is you were running,'" Blandino said. "I think when you look at the tape, it does look like Ed did say that ... at one point. You can't see everything that Ed says, but he's adamant he didn't say it, and I think that's where we are right now and we're just going to kind of move on from there."

Blandino supported Hochuli's decision not to throw a flag on the play.

"Cam was outside the pocket and he threw the ball on the run, so there are different protections for a quarterback that is running outside the pocket versus in the pocket," he said. "Outside the pocket you don't get the two-step protection, and so when you look at the play, Cam threw on the run, there was some contact, it wasn't late and it wasn't a foul."

Check out the video above.