Sportinglife.com reporters voice their opinions, and Mike Ashley comes out of this smelling of roses for sticking by his man ...
Ben Coley (Sportinglife.com): This is a difficult question to answer but first and foremost let's be clear - it was a deplorable act by a manager who is swiftly gaining an unwanted reputation for being, for want of a better word, classless.
Yes it's easy to cast judgement from afar but he's paid a great deal of money to do his job and part of that is to represent Newcastle in the best possible way.
On several occasions just this season he has failed to do that and in that respect, perhaps they should've sacked him.
Credit must go to the club for dishing out a pretty hefty fine and making their position immediately clear and it's to be hoped that Pardew sees this is a lifeline and changes the way he behaves. It's a faint hope.
Chris Hammer (Sportinglife.com): Unless you've played in some particularly rough Sunday Leagues over the years when scuffles may involve hot-headed managers, this kind of incident simply doesn't happen in football so it was no surprise to see the images of Alan Pardew's 'forward head movement' towards David Meyler getting splashed over the newspapers on Sunday morning.
In my view, that's 'all' it was rather than a proper headbutt attack but nevertheless a punishment must - and will - be served. Newcastle acted very swiftly to not only condemn their manager's actions but also hand him a more than hefty enough fine and I think it's fair to leave it at that as well as accepting whatever the Football Association decide.
Pardew obviously can't come away from this situation with any credit but at least his apologies did seem completely sincere and admitted he needs to calm down on the touchline in future. What more can he do or say? If he'd tried to excuse his behaviour or laugh it off with a lack of remorse then maybe a sacking would be deserved - but I think his reaction probably was enough to keep him in the job.
I'm sure not all fans, pundits or members of the press are quite as forgiving as me but let's not forget nobody was even hurt or verbally offended here.
Nick Hext (Sportinglife.com): Newcastle could have sacked him - but all moral issues aside - it wouldn't have done any good to the club's fortunes.
Rightly or wrongly a football manager is judged on results alone and whether he's a nice chap or not doesn't have much bearing on his employment. There aren't too many bosses who get sacked for issues outside of wins and losses, that is unless a club is looking for an excuse to get rid of the man in charge.
Newcastle did the right thing by handing Pardew a hefty fine before Saturday night was out and that was a good move to show the outside world they've taken the situation seriously.
That leaves the Magpies chief needing to get his behaviour sorted and the bad news for Mrs Pardew is she will most likely have her husband stewing over this on Saturday afternoons while he serves a stadium ban.
Steve Evans and Paul Ince have received such a punishment in the Football League and it seems inconceivable to me that the FA don't act in a similar fashion because of this incident.
David John (Sportinglife.com): The obvious place to start really after the Toon boss produced another moment of madness on the touchline. I applaud the fact he came out and immediately apologised for his actions rather than try and fob everyone off by either denying it was a headbutt or producing some half-baked excuse.
As we stand, Newcastle are standing by him but the clear problem going forward will be for Pardew trying to maintain discipline among his players having set such a terrible example.
If he has the support of the dressing room then there is a chance things may eventually blow over after the FA have their say - but my feeling is that Pardew ultimately may well be shown the door for the sake of the club as a whole.