Tag: Cecil Newton

Cam Newton attends first Heisman Trophy ceremony since winning award in 2010. Here’s why he was absent and why he returned . . .

Cam Newton made an appearance at the Heisman Trophy ceremony for the first time since his win in 2010. Here’s why he’s been absent and why he returned:

Cam Newton had a pretty good reason not to attend the last 13 Heisman Trophy ceremonies before Saturday night. But he also had a pretty good reason to break that absence and return to the stage he once graced.

The Carolina Panthers legend was in attendance for this year’s presentation of college football’s greatest individual honor. Newton, flanked by his two sons, came back to New York City to support the eventual winner—University of Colorado wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter.

Hunter, like a number of NFLers, was a former pupil of Newton’s. Prior to becoming a transcendent talent at the collegiate level, the two-way terror played for Cam’s 7v7 youth football program as a high schooler.

Supporting Hunter obviously meant quite a bit to Newton—who, of course, won the award himself 14 years ago. The Auburn University star quarterback captured his Heisman in a landslide in 2010, earning 729 of the 883 first-place votes.

Newton, however, was crowned in the midst of some controversy involving his father Cecil. The NCAA, through an investigation completed just days before Cam’s Heisman victory, concluded that Cecil engaged in a pay-for-play scheme with his son’s attempted recruitment to Mississippi State University.

Cecil, as a result, claimed he himself decided not to attend since he may have been a distraction. But Cam, in an episode of his podcast from this past March, said the Heisman Trust asked Cecil not to show—the reasoning behind his long absence.

“But I haven’t been to a Heisman event since I left, and it’s because they told my dad he couldn’t come to the ceremony,” he said. “The biggest moment of my life, the most influential person of my life can’t share the biggest time of my life.

“Going back to that time, you have to be reminded, the NCAA was doing a thorough investigation. ‘Mr. Newton, it’s best if you don’t.’ And my dad is similar to me. Any extracurricular distractions, I don’t want. ‘Son, I’ll be in the hotel room.’ And I just remember like after I won the Heisman, I just kept looking at my mom, and she knew. She was like, ‘Yeah, baby, let’s go to the room.’ I’m that person that my dad is such a strong figure in my life. He sacrificed a lot just so I could play.”

But perhaps all’s well that ends well, at least on this night . . .

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