It’s hard to believe that it has already been 10 years since Auburn was tabbed as the reason college sports is crooked and reporters throughout the nation took to their keyboards to blame Cam Newton for ruining the sanctity of amateur athletics.
What a great time that was, right?
Well, here at The Auburn Wire we would like to take you down the memory lane of everything that was written and said about Newton despite the fact that it was never proven that Auburn paid him nor that Cam, the player, had done anything wrong.
Let’s start out with Pat Forde. Forde, who was one of the main guys who may still be looking for information that Newton cheated, couldn’t stand the sight of Auburn celebrating after the national title game.
It was a game of ethical flinches. Watching Cam Newton get a confetti bath did not qualify as the feel-good moment of the season for anyone other than title-starved Tigers fans and greedy Southeastern Conference backers, who will keep the crystal football in their neighborhood for an unprecedented fifth straight season. The Auburn quarterback withstood an interception, a lost fumble and a wince-inducing back injury to flash one more winner’s smile.
“I don’t want nobody to feel sorry for me, because throughout this year didn’t nobody feel sorry for Auburn,” Newton said, setting a BCS record for double negatives in a single sentence. “We got the last laugh.”
Maybe not the very last laugh. The lingering question is whether Auburn has its hardware only on loan. An ongoing NCAA investigation, spurred by findings that Newton’s father tried to sell his son’s quarterbacking services to Mississippi State, could one day result in the school’s first title in 53 years being vacated.
Pretty sure Newton got the last laugh, Pat.
There’s a lot to take out of this article by The Week but, of course, every Auburn fan’s favorite Pete Thamel is mentioned.
College football has been rocked before by allegations of under-the-table payoffs, said Pete Thamel in The New York Times, but the Cam Newton story has the potential to be the “most explosive” scandal in the sport’s history. Newton, a 6-foot-6 quarterback, is easily college football’s best player this year, as he’s led Auburn University to an 11–0 season with his blazing rushing and passing talents. But a former player for rival Mississippi State has triggered an investigation by both the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the FBI with a claim that Newton’s father, Cecil, a Georgia pastor, shopped his son to recruiters for a payoff of $180,000. The mere solicitation, if proved, would disqualify Newton and void Auburn’s stellar season. “God help the Rev. Newton” if he pimped his son to the highest bidder, said Kevin Scarbinsky in the Birmingham, Ala., News. And God help Auburn if investigators find truth in another source’s claim: Cam allegedly told a recruiter he had to choose Auburn because “the money was too much.”
“Please, stop feigning shock,” said Jerome Solomon in the Houston Chronicle. College football has been dirty ever since the legendary Knute Rockne let his Notre Dame “student-athletes” make some cash by playing pro ball on Sundays under assumed names. Scandals like this are inevitable, said George Vecsey in The New York Times, because the NCAA insists on pretending that big-time college sports is nothing but wholesome, amateur competition. Instead, both college football and basketball are “semipro enterprises grafted clumsily onto the fabric of education,” with great players like Newton worth millions to whatever college he chooses to attend.
Let’s all forget that North Carolina had been holding fake classes for quite some time.
From SI.com’s Michael Rosenberg:
“We’re getting to the point where, if Newton wins the Heisman, they might have to give the trophy an ankle tether. That way, the Heisman Trust will know where to find it if they decide to repossess. Newton will, instantly, be the most controversial Heisman winner ever.”
AND, of course, let’s not forget Thayer Evans who pleaded with everyone to not vote for Cam for the Heisman in this pathetic column.
For Halloween, Auburn quarterback Cameron Newton wore a white fairy costume.
And if you’re a Heisman voter who casts a ballot for him, you’re just buying the fairytale that he and his father, Cecil Newton, a pastor, have been selling the last two years.
With ESPN.com reporting Thursday that a man saying he represented Newton allegedly sought $180,000 for him while he was being recruited by Mississippi State, it’s one they may have gotten paid for.
So listen closely, Heisman voters: Do not vote for Newton.
That’s surely a heartbreaking message for most of you, who basically had already given him the award for college football’s most outstanding player.
But remember, just less than two months ago, disgraced New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush in an unprecedented move returned the Heisman Trophy that he won in 2005. That was after the NCAA determined he was ineligible that season at USC for having accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in benefits from two agents.
When Bush won the award, there were no signs of potential impropriety. Yet with Newton, a junior, now there are.
Yes, they are allegations, but the kind that aren’t worth risking the return of another Heisman Trophy.
Of course, there will be Heisman voters who still vote for Newton. They’re blinded by their love for him, just like most of the media, who have been duped repeatedly by him and his father.
After all, the supposed redemption story of Newton has always seemed too good to be true.
The way he and his father told it was compelling. Their version was that the younger Newton had simply made a dumb mistake while at Florida in November 2008 when he was arrested and charged with burglary, larceny and obstruction of justice in connection with a stolen laptop.
They maintained he had not stolen the computer, but instead purchased it from a man selling electronics out of the back of his car. The charges, all felonies, were later dropped after Newton completed a pretrial diversion program.
When Newton left Florida in early 2009 to transfer to Blinn College, a two-year junior college in Texas, he and his father said he didn’t want to spend another year backing up then-Gators quarterback Tim Tebow, who decided to stay for his senior year.
And when as the nation’s top junior college recruit, Newton decided not to attend Mississippi State to play for Dan Mullen, his former offensive coordinator at Florida, and instead chose Auburn last December, the decision was made for him by his father, according to a recent Sports Illustrated article.
All those extenuating circumstances never seemed to add up, but in light of the most recent allegations, perhaps they do to some extent. It’s no surprise either that Newton’s father has denied any wrongdoing to ESPN.com.
On the field, there’s never been much doubt about Newton other than his questionable passing ability. He’s one of the best running quarterbacks in recent memory and is essentially a one-man team who has willed undefeated Auburn to its No. 2 ranking in the BCS standings.
But there’s precedent of wrongdoing at Auburn. It’s as much a part of the university’s culture as a Bo Jackson stiff-arm or the toilet-paper tradition known as rolling Toomer’s Corner.
The Tigers have had seven major NCAA violations, which included players being paid under former coach Pat Dye, who resigned in 1992. But that doesn’t include other issues such as former players receiving high grades in sociology classes that required little work and no attendance.
The scrutiny surrounding Newton and Auburn’s past is too much to ignore, at least for now. And with all of Newton and his father’s spin, who knows how much they may have misrepresented.
So do what’s right, Heisman voters, and don’t you, too, get juked by the Newtons. Character should be a factor for the Heisman.
Plus, there’s a plenty more deserving candidate: Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore. And unlike Newton, he doesn’t have to play dress-up to get attention.