Violence in North Carolina has Vikings players calling for change, unity

The NFL announced Sunday’s game in Charlotte between the Vikings and the Carolina Panthers will go on as scheduled despite the violent protests in North Carolina’s largest city.

But the nation’s latest police shooting and the ensuing carnage there had some Vikings players, at least for a few minutes, worrying about something other than stopping Cam Newton’s designed QB keepers or finding holes in Carolina’s zone coverages.

Terence Newman was standing at his locker at Winter Park when a pair of reporters approached him to ask him if he was paying attention to the unrest in Charlotte.

“Of course I do. I pay attention to what’s going on everywhere,” the 38-year-old cornerback said. “What about…