The Cam Newton Saga: Even by SEC standards, it’s bizarre
There’s no tempest like an SEC tempest, the scope of which can be breathtaking. Only in this conference could Alabama’s signing of a lineman from Memphis lead to Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer being served with a subpoena at the league’s Media Days. Only here could a night out in Pensacola, Fla., lead to Mike Price being fired by Alabama before coaching a game. Only the SEC could spawn the feel-good-gone-bad tale of Cameron Jerrell Newton.
He’s a quarterback from College Park who played at Westlake High. He signed with Florida, where he served as understudy for the sainted Tim Tebow. Newton left to attend a junior college in Texas, where he played for Brad Franchione, whose father Dennis used to coach Alabama and whose abrupt departure for Texas A&M led the Tide to hire, albeit briefly, Mike Price. (Nobody does connections like the SEC.)
Newton wound up enrolling at Auburn, where he’s considered the leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy. His team ranks second in both the Associated Press poll and the BCS standings and can clinch the SEC West by beating Georgia on Saturday. All of this is, however, subject to change.
Last week ESPN and the New York Times reported that former Mississippi State quarterback John Bond had been informed it would cost $180,000 for Newton to commit to MSU. (This John Bond, not to be confused with Georgia State offensive coordinator John Bond, was the quarterback at Valdosta High after Buck Belue and John Lastinger, both of whom went on to greater glory at Georgia. At MSU, the Valdosta product was known as “One-Hop Bond” for his aerial accuracy.)
Bond has dropped from sight — the celebrity Web site TMZ reports that the FBI wishes to speak with him — but not before granting an on-air audience to Belue, his fellow Valdosta alum, on 680 The Fan in which he undercut his own story by suggesting he hadn’t spoken with the intermediary named in the initial reports. (To which we say: Huh?)
Auburn was quick to assert that Newton was fully eligible to play for the Tigers, whom he led to a 62-24 victory over Chattanooga last weekend. Afterward he told reporters: “When God be blessin’, the devil be messin’.” (Newton’s father Cecil is the pastor of the Holy Zion Center of Deliverance in Newnan, which, as the New York Times helpfully informed us, has only recently been restored to city building codes.)
We pause here for breath, for our tangled tale has only begun. This week FoxSports.com reported Newton had been accused of cheating while at Florida. (While a student in Gainesville, Newton was also charged with three felony counts involving a stolen laptop that was subsequently tossed out a window. The charges were dropped after he underwent pretrial diversion.)
This cheating revelation, attributed to an unnamed source, immediately led Florida coach Urban Meyer to issue a statement saying nobody connected with the Gators had done the leaking. On cue, Auburn coach Gene Chizik dismissed all allegations as “pure garbage” and wondered, in what seemed a clear reference to Meyer and Dan Mullen, the former Florida assistant who’s now head coach at Mississippi State: “Is there a wizard behind the curtain? Is there one? Is there two?”
In all of this, the overarching question has been: If it was going to take $180,000 for Newton to play for Mississippi State, did he really enroll at Auburn for free? On Tuesday ESPN became the first outlet to address that issue, reporting that two unnamed Mississippi State recruiters were informed in separate phone conversations with Cam and Cecil Newton that the player’s services were indeed for sale.
One recruiter, according to ESPN, maintained the elder Newton said it would take “more than a scholarship” to land his son. Another source said Cam Newton expressed regret after his father chose Auburn for him, saying, “The money was too much.”
And that’s where we are, our story nowhere near its conclusion. If Auburn has reason to believe there’s a chance Newton’s recruitment wasn’t aboveboard, will it bench him for the Georgia game and risk losing the division title it’s so close to winning? (Chizik asserted on a teleconference Wednesday that Newton would start against the Bulldogs.) Does the SEC, shuddering over the possibility of its championship game matching Auburn and Chizik against Florida and Meyer, intercede? Does the NCAA? The FBI?
And what of Georgia, which needs one victory in its final two games to become bowl-eligible? Could the underwhelming Bulldogs face Georgia Tech without quarterback Joshua Nesbitt, who broke his arm against Virginia Tech, and Auburn without Newton? If so, wouldn’t that make Mark Richt the luckiest man alive?
And what of us? What does it say when we pay so much attention to games purportedly played by amateurs after being reminded so often that college football is as pure as the driven sludge? Does that make us hypocrites? Or merely fools?
Feel free to answer, but I’m not sure I want to know.
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519 comments Add your comment
Herschel Talker
November 10th, 2010
2:38 pm
MB:
Mark Richt the luckiest man alive? Seriously? C’mon man, that’s pathetic. Mark Richt wouldn’t need any sort of luck if he had any coaching ability and didn’t surround himself with hacks.
FIRE MARK RICHT
HT
CoachDawg 2000
November 10th, 2010
2:38 pm
I think we are all a combo of hypocrites and fools. We all act like we don’t see that our previously dirt poor 5 star recruits drive around campus in beautiful SUV’s. We also keep follishly buying into the purity of the game and that these guys are there(at school) to get an education to carry them through a lifetime but we all know that the big shot recruits are there to get noticed by the No Fun League. F.Y.I the falcons are going to be exposed as the frauds of the NFL tomorrow night.
Tweets that mention The Cam Newton Saga: It's mind-boggling even by SEC standards | Mark Bradley -- Topsy.com
November 10th, 2010
2:43 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sandlapper Spike, TideWire. TideWire said: http://bit.ly/WireUA The Cam Newton Saga: Even by SEC standards, it's bizarre – Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) http://bit.ly/a7XSYB [...]
jennifer
November 10th, 2010
2:43 pm
dawgrific bama has limo to!!! just saying…..WDE!!!
Left Foot
November 10th, 2010
2:43 pm
Auburn’s season and all the awards that go with it – assuming there are any – will be forever tainted. If only the end justified the means, huh Barners?
secfootball
November 10th, 2010
2:44 pm
@ simpledawg 2:31…But……Vegas taking a big game off of the board due to rumor and innuendo…..sure does make me wonder……. Me too! Now folks at Auburn can keep saying lies,rumors all they want to.But when the big boys in Vegas do this? Well,enough said!
Top Dawg
November 10th, 2010
2:46 pm
Buckeye, your sorry school is ‘0 for’ against ALL SEC schools in bowl games.
juvenal
November 10th, 2010
2:47 pm
Mark, how much heat would CPJ get IF Tech is a LOT better without #9?
AnAuburnFan
November 10th, 2010
2:48 pm
@dawgrific: do you want to compare arrest records of UGA players vs AU players to see which team has the most “character and integrity”?
Nova Eagle
November 10th, 2010
2:49 pm
The reference to barners as something derogatory has always been humorous to me. We are in the state of Alabama where agriculture was for the most part the bread and butter of our economy. As far as I understand agriculture and animal sciences still provide us with the food we eat. Therefore if you can only come up with barners as a slanderous term for Auburn fans I think you should stop eating as a barner might have had a hand in some production of your meal.
Scamp
November 10th, 2010
2:51 pm
He should just go pro and stop pretending to be a student-athlete!
Ed (The Original)
November 10th, 2010
2:56 pm
Sounds like Cam might have a few screws loose.
sharpie
November 10th, 2010
2:56 pm
All they are trying to do right now is tarnish his name so he wont win the Heisman, he wont be suspended or kicked from the school because he hasn’t done a damn thing wrong. Once you say something like that about a player it will make people’s minds wander even without solid proof of anything actually happening. As for community service… Cam Newton went to the local elementary school in July to ask a teacher if she would let him come once a week to read with the kids and has been every week this fall. And to “Roll Tide”, I know of a player whom I played football with and who also lead your defense last year and is now at Oakland, who’s mother couldn’t afford a car for herself or a house and while her son was at Bama he drove a 2009 Yukon which was in his uncle’s name who’d apparently gotten a loan from a bank in tuscaloosa. This Yukon was impounded while “linebacker” let someone else drive it and the uncle didn’t have fifty dollars to get it out. The “linebacker” proceeded to total another players’ 2007 maxima.. the other players’ older brother told me the booster club took care of it. Oh and one more thing the linebacker wrecked a $9000 motorcycle which he couldn’t have bought and also carried no less than $3000 in cash on him when he went out on the town. All this and they didnt even pay to recruit him, just to be a player.
sharpie
November 10th, 2010
2:57 pm
and newton drives a scooter….http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.thewareaglereader.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/cam-crop.png&imgrefurl=http://www.thewareaglereader.com/2010/08/scootin-newton/&usg=__hbxdEh6p8bTikQR_DgksJaB6PLk=&h=290&w=465&sz=135&hl=en&start=3&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=hS85Dq8I947lpM:&tbnh=80&tbnw=128&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dscootin%2Bnewton%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1680%26bih%3D935%26tbs%3Disch:1
sharpie
November 10th, 2010
2:57 pm
sorry
http://www.thewareaglereader.com/2010/08/scootin-newton/
Cobb Dawg
November 10th, 2010
2:59 pm
To coin a poker phrase, Awbun is “all-in”. They’ve just waiting to see what cards the NCAA has. And judging from the past, the NCAA plays for keeps.
SEC Fact Checker
November 10th, 2010
3:02 pm
With all the various reporting Precints in and around the SEC, I have a couple of questions that have yet to fully answered, could Mark or someone answer them for me?
Did (as reported by one of our fine SEC newspapers reported) did Cameron Newton ever sign up for classes at MSU before the beginning of spring semester?
How many current schools in the SEC that offered Cameron Newton a scholarship had a conversation with Cecil Newton concerning what it would take to get Cameron to attend and play for their football team?
Did Cecil Newton not only send his personal bank records to the NCAA, did he send the bank records from all 5 churches he oversees and manages to the NCAA? The reason I ask that is anyone familiar with Politics knows that the way to hide money is to give it to a church or religious institution.
I hope this works out for Cameron, but if Cecil is the one who has benefited he needs to pay the price for shopping a player. He is no better than the so called “agent” who purchased AJ Green’s jersey, or the clown behind the SEC Agent gate scenario.
The entire situation is starting to look more bleak each passing day for Cameron Newton and it looks from the outside and the uninformed that Cecil Newton may have cashed one too many checks to secure a football future for his son.
Fleishcman in Chi Towns bed
November 10th, 2010
3:04 pm
SCAM Newton
Fig Newton
Camburglar
Thug
take your pick
Smyrna Jacket
November 10th, 2010
3:06 pm
To Bull:
So, Mullen’s coaches are the ones soliciting $150k to play at MSU.
Ok, cleared that up.
Ted M
November 10th, 2010
3:08 pm
The only hypocrites are those in the NCAA. They have an iron clad monopoly on high school football players and they exploit that to the highest possible level.
If Newton got $250k to play for Auburn more power to him; I’d take it if I were him.
However, the stolen laptop is bad. He was likely stealing from a fellow poor student. That’s bad and not easily forgiven.
Mike
November 10th, 2010
3:09 pm
Well, this is huge. I’m not going to say people don’t change, but Newton appears to have a history of questionable character decisions. The laptop incident, cheating, and then basically covering that up when talking about why they left Florida is just not good. Does that mean he automatically offered his services for money? No. But it shows a recent pattern of bad decisions.
If these allegations are true, this is far beyond Newton and the Auburn faithful. LSU would be the one sitting at #2 and in control of the West if not for a loss to Auburn. How about South Carolina who would have the East wrapped up if not for a loss to Auburn? How about Arkansas who would be one win against LSU away from winning the West if not for a loss to Auburn? And yes, a loss for UGA against Auburn would mean they might not make a bowl game.
dawgrific
November 10th, 2010
3:11 pm
I knew that was coming, but an unpaid traffic ticket, selling a jersey, etc. IS NOT NEARLY THE SAME as openly recruiting someone who has ALREADY been in major trouble. Plus, that horribly cheesy and hideous limo……….
CleanupURact
November 10th, 2010
3:13 pm
Hmmm.. Cam Newton, cheating on tests, buying tests on the internet, putting his name on other students test, purchases a known stolen laptop? Representing the SEC. Alabama gone for years not allowed on TV, LSU? Don’t have time, 38 arrest at Georgia over the last 4 years, TN? The SEC has not had ONE Year without a team on probation or under NCAA allegations since when? ’90’s, 80’s?
THE SEC IS BECOMING AN EMBARRASSMENT TO COLLEGE FOOTBALL. Clean it up or scrap your programs. The days of Felon U need to end……..
Old Dawg
November 10th, 2010
3:14 pm
Without question, this is the most bizarre thing I’ve heard of in relation to college athletics. I seen a lot in my years but this takes the cake, er, laptop.
As questions about real reporting, it takes time, patience and willing participants to put together a piece like this. Unfortunately, it seems like many of the participants are either ghosts of whispered statements or never really had anything worth saying in the first place.
Like I said on Tony’s page, can we just play a little football and let the soap operas end?
tigerstigerswhatwereyathinkin'
November 10th, 2010
3:14 pm
if he left UF you know something had to be wrong.
Dawg 1
November 10th, 2010
3:15 pm
First – Straight Jacket, get a life or your going to need a Straight Jacket.
Second – Buckeye – who invited you to this party? Get a life and enjoy beating up the ‘lightweights’ year in and year out in the Big 10 + 1.
Finally, who cares about the Auburn QB. That stuff will work it’s way out one way or another. Personally hope he does play. If we win – we win and if we lose we lose (but no excuses from the Tigers if we do win).
dawgrific
November 10th, 2010
3:16 pm
seriously, they HAVE TO PAY players to get them to come to that town, so, perhaps no punishments are in order as there is a history of that going on “on the plains”
BARNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol
Nativebird
November 10th, 2010
3:17 pm
“Can Newton is eligible to play, Cam Newton is eligible to play”. Well we’ve figured out Auburn’s response strategy….”maybe if we can just say it over and over again, it will become true.”
Whip Cream on Dawg Crap
November 10th, 2010
3:18 pm
My house was broke into, I called the police they said we are too busy, but if you could get the Red & Black jersey number that will help with the report.
dawgrific
November 10th, 2010
3:18 pm
oh good lord, take your grand-standing somewhere else you envious acc and big ten whiners!
jb
November 10th, 2010
3:19 pm
leave cam alone.he is a great foot ball palyer and that is what matters,i will follow came to the nfl ,war eagle
dawgrific
November 10th, 2010
3:20 pm
hardy-har-har, what a knee-slapper whip cream, you techie in a not-so-good-disguise!
dawgrific
November 10th, 2010
3:21 pm
btw whupped cream, if it was a lap-top that was stolen, then I think I can point you in the right direction (go west my friend!)
GW
November 10th, 2010
3:29 pm
I fear that when this washes out “Rev.” Cecil and/or his church got their collection plate hit for well less than 200K and Cam knows nothing about what really happened. I’m still having trouble believing “sources.”
UGA Insider
November 10th, 2010
3:31 pm
Surprisingly, this investigation has been going on with Newton and the NCAA for 10 months. The NCAA just didn’t want to deal with it I think. They would rather go after simple slam dunk cases like AJ Green or the UNC kids. The Newton case however involves major money and lots of tentacles that will make the NCAA and the SEC look very bad. I wouldn’t say they tried to sweep this one under the rug I think they just prayed the season would end and Newton would move on to the NFL. This is going to turn out now to be another Reggie Bush type dragout that lasts for years.
SickandTired
November 10th, 2010
3:31 pm
This is the most rediculous situation in the history of the SEC. All the other schools are drooling and laughing and the fact of the matter is none of them have clean hands. Not even the Saintly one Mark Richt. I heard that the year Stafford came in that that incoming class set an all time record for money that it cost at UGA. So there, there’s you a rumor to chew on. Point is, the gang piling on Auburn and the Newton’s right now would never have seen the light of day if he hadn’t turned out to be a good QB. If he’s been like Reggie Ball everybody around the league would have loved him. I hope he suits up Saturday, I hope he hangs 60 on Georgia. I hope he wins the National Championship and comes back next year to reapeat. Chew on that Dawgs, Gators, Tigers and every other kind of animal that slithers in the SEC.
Billy
November 10th, 2010
3:32 pm
So far, we have “unnamed sources” and a willing media that is running with a story. Who cares if he cheated at UF? He went to Blinn and did what he had to to get back in the good graces of academia. It’s hypocritical for the UGA/Bama/UF faithful to go after this kid. When you live in a glass house, you shouldn’t throw stones…
Get someone ON RECORD before trying to make me believe this junk. And I’m not even an Auburn fan. SEC fans are insane.
robodawg
November 10th, 2010
3:35 pm
If Mark Richt were the luckiest man alive, Florida would’ve continued their turnover troubles against us.
Shankit
November 10th, 2010
3:38 pm
Anybody, if Auburn forfeits, does this
mean Spurrier has sewed up the East?
SEC fan
November 10th, 2010
3:40 pm
We need to bring back Roy Kramer and Phil Fulmer, dang it we’re just not getting away with half the stuff we used to.
Whip Cream on Dawg Crap
November 10th, 2010
3:44 pm
Cam Newton for Heisman? We can throw that out the window…. no wait… that was his laptop?
Lila
November 10th, 2010
3:46 pm
I love college football, and after closer examination of this case, I am ashamed of that. The NCAA has a flawed system that allows everyone but the athletes to benefit financially from college football. Some of these kids, and that is what they are, come from poverty situations. Once at school, they can practice, attend class, study, eat meal plan food and play football on Saturdays. Why not give athletes a stipend? The amount could have a floor and a ceiling, and could be determined by parents’ income and grades. What we ask of them is unfair.
I hope and pray that the Cam drama turns out to be nothing but sour grapes, and I wish him the best, wherever he goes and whatever happens.
Legend of Len Barker
November 10th, 2010
3:46 pm
After watching the 30-for-30 story on Marcus Dupree, I don’t think there should be any doubt that it takes considerable cash and gifts to get any major recruit to a university. And Dupree was 30 years ago when college football wasn’t nearly as big of a moneymaker as it is now.
This goes for any university – at least on the FBS level. Somehow I don’t think D-III St. John’s (MN) is paying any dollar for players.
Back to Newton, I’ve heard the FBI portion from a source that isn’t TMZ.
Camisnotatightend
November 10th, 2010
3:47 pm
Lots of rumors but not much by way of facts. The only “source” who let his name be used (Bond) is now backpedalling. I’ll tell you one thing–I wish Richt would show the same kind of fire that Chizik shows when the bullies from Florida take their cheap (and illegal) shots.
A Fan
November 10th, 2010
3:48 pm
For all the things that are being said about Mark Richt, you will never hear about him possibily paying for a player or leaking information that would damage a former player. Not because he is a “saint,” but because he knows that there is more to life than winning football games.
Shankit
November 10th, 2010
3:49 pm
It wasn’t a payoff.
It was a tithe to a church.
Tax deductible.
Mike Franklin
November 10th, 2010
3:51 pm
Even as a UGA fan, I see much of this Cam Newton flap as being adversary-generated and media-enhanced. If we could pull the cloak off of all the various rumors, my bet is that they would each trail back to an SEC school, alum or booster. If we could open the hood and look at the engine, we would see that it was powered by ESPN and every other sports network and many of their pundits.
This is a money-making crap-stir that’s going on… and Auburn being one of the so-called ‘lesser’ SEC schools, there’s not a huge nation to rise up and fight it off. It is the perfect BS storm.
Whip Cream on Dawg Crap
November 10th, 2010
3:51 pm
The police got everything back for me but my laptop. Dawgrific where do you think it might be?
Dawg Whisperer
November 10th, 2010
3:52 pm
Mark, you’re not a fool, just a tool used by the machinations of society in it’s quest for more entertaining reading. If not for all this season’s transgressions among SEC schools, exactly how many articles would you have prepared? Imagine how difficult your job would have been this season if not for all the drama amongst the football student/athletes. If you were writing about college football in the Ivy League… well, let’s not even think about that, after all they are students that happen to play football. Did I forget to say…. Go Dawgs!!!!
yellow thunder
November 10th, 2010
3:54 pm
Cool…you got underwhelming Bulldogs into a story about SEC cheating. I was waiting for our daily “Richt isn’t fit to throw out my garbage” thread.
How does it feel to make a living trashing a good guy, Bradley?