Cam’s the man in college football, and now he’s free to play
Yet another precinct heard from. (Rainy-day photo by M. Bradley)
BREAKING NEWS: The NCAA has ruled Cam Newton eligible. Technically the NCAA ruled him ineligible for one day and has reinstated him. Another post is upcoming.
Auburn, Ala. – The wayfaring journey of Cameron Jerrell Newton has turned for home: From College Park and Westlake High to Florida and Auburn with a Texas junior college in between, and now back to Atlanta for Saturday’s SEC championship. It should be one of the happiest stories in the history of the sport, but its hero has gone missing in plain sight.
Auburn’s coach was asked Tuesday when the best player in college football might again be made available to the media, something that hasn’t happened for two weeks. Said Gene Chizik: “I’m going to stay on the path of commenting directly on his play.”
A reporter noted that SEC rules call for every player to be available for interviews after the title game and asked if Auburn would comply with league policy. Chizik: “I’m going to stay on the path of making comments on the championship game or the previous 12 games.”
More intriguing was how often Chizik, in the course of a 33-minute briefing, mentioned his best player by name — once. (He called him “Cameron.”) Asked by this correspondent if playing such a massive game in his hometown might heighten the pressure on Newton to an unbearable level, Chizik didn’t even deploy the third-person singular, meaning “he” or “him”, in his response. He went plural, both in the first and third person, all the way.
Chizik: “We’ve had a lot of big moments to get to this point, in my opinion, as a team and individually … We’ve all kind of been here before at some point in the other games. I think that’s big for us, and I think that’s big for our players individually. I’m hoping that this would not be any different. They don’t give me any reason to believe they’ll respond differently.”
Weird. You cannot take two steps in the Loveliest Village of the Plain without hearing or seeing some mention of Cam Newton. (See the example above, photographed outside Momma Goldberg’s Deli — home of the “Pastrama Momma” — on Thach Avenue.) No serious discussion of college football can commence anywhere in these United States without lip service being paid to the irresistible Tiger quarterback. Yet it’s as if the man who coaches Newton dare not speak his name.
Given the twists in this tale, Auburn’s skittishness is understandable. Since the first ESPN report on Nov. 4 that the former Mississippi State quarterback John Bond (formerly of Valdosta) had been told it would cost serious money for Newton to play for the Bulldogs, the Tigers have awaited the next shoe dropping. Who knew Newton’s story housed more shoes than Imelda Marcos’ closet?
We’ve heard from two more MSU voices, the ex-players Kenny Rogers and Bill Bell. We’ve been informed by FoxSports.com that Newton left Florida under suspicion of cheating. We’ve heard, via Mark Winne of Channel 2 Action News, that Newton’s father Cecil has admitted to someone that he sought money from Mississippi State. The air (and airwaves) became so charged it wasn’t clear if Cam Newton would play against Georgia on Nov. 13 until he took part in the pregame Tiger Walk, leaping and shouting and high-fiving, and entered Jordan-Hare Stadium, pausing to kneel at the goalpost.
Newton was great that day, greater still against hated Alabama in Tuscaloosa last week. The Tigers trailed 24-0, won 28-27. Asked if Newton’s performance had been “one for the ages,” Chizik again took the big-picture tack: “At some point we’re going to have a chance to breathe and look back and realize how monumental that was … I don’t know how many teams in the course of history would have been able to do that.”
Win Saturday and Newton’s team will play for the BCS title in Glendale, Ariz., on Jan. 10. That is, however, a long way off — plenty of time for more investigative work, more allegations. Newton will surely have to break his silence when he wins the Heisman Trophy, which is announced Dec. 11, but even then the man of the year in college football is apt to remain a man of mystery.
On Tuesday, the tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen, who’s from Lassiter High in Marietta, spoke of and essentially for his quarterback. “Business as usual for Cam is basically straight goofball,” Lutzenkirchen told reporters. “He’s always joking around, always messing with everyone. That hasn’t changed at all throughout this year.”
As for Newton himself: The son of a preacher is holding his peace. Asked if the most valuable and visible Tiger was planning to address the media, a helpful Auburn staffer pointed to the entrance of the Athletic Center and said: “He’s going to walk through that door … and keep on going.”
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452 comments Add your comment
Cobb Dawg
December 1st, 2010
5:06 pm
No Aubies, this is long from over. You can stop your WDE’s! Even the NCAA is not stupid enough to give Green a 4-game suspension for selling his own jersey and let Newton, et al, off for being paid, professional athletes posing as college students. More to come, rest assure!
LuvIt
December 1st, 2010
5:11 pm
Absolutely love watching all the thUGAs and Bammers implode.
It’s like watching a row of dominos collapsing. One after another after another.
Ya’ll were SO SURE!! You had pinned SO many hopes and dreams on a different outcome!
And now your wailing, whining, moaning, groaning and complaining only grows and grows!!
Music to my ears.
OldNavy
December 1st, 2010
5:12 pm
RL, I think the answer to your question about Cam’s eligibility is that while we’re just hearing from the NCAA today, they and AU have been orchestrating the answer for several weeks. Many, many insiders at AU said they believed this was wrapped up when AU, the SEC, and the Newtons met with the NCAA before the UGA game. Given that everyone has lawyers, it isn’t unrealistic to think that it took several days for everyone to get their statements approved for release. Taking into account the Thanksgiving holiday break, and you have something happening this week. Just my opinion, but I don’t think all this just happened over a 24 hour period. They’ve been working toward this conclusion for quite a while.
OldNavy
December 1st, 2010
5:13 pm
Come on Cobb Dawg. The NCAA has told you. Cam’s eligible. AU is in the clear. Now, you can believe for the rest of your life that AU cheated, but all that will get you is high blood pressure and gray hair.
Big O
December 1st, 2010
5:14 pm
I have no love of Au or AL, but the AL fans crying about AU buying players when they still blame Fulmer for ratting them out and somehow not noting that THEIR CHEATING was documented also tends to gag me a bit. They weren’t wrong for cheating, but Fulmer was terribly wrong for turning them in. A bit hypocritical.
RiffRaff
December 1st, 2010
5:16 pm
Cam, your daddy pimped you out, nice guy. The NCAA choked on their own rules. Just don’t sell your jersey, you’ll get busted…….
Mark?
December 1st, 2010
5:17 pm
It’s actually “Pastrama Momma” (NOT Momma Pastrama) and whatever you want to call it, it’s definitely yummmmmmmmmmmm.
But the best sammy on the menu (IMO) is Momma’s Love. Heaven!
http://www.mommagoldbergs.com/
Cry a Little More
December 1st, 2010
5:26 pm
Dawgbone79,
Really? A Thayer Evans article as a source? Scrapping the bottom of the barrel I see. Have fun at the Meineke Bowl (Not sure if that is still a bowl but I havent looked that far down the bowl list).
Saturday Evening Post article in like 1960
December 1st, 2010
5:37 pm
Crazy stuff happens from time to time in college football, like when the Sat Evening Post tried to hang Bear Bryant and Wally Butts with a game fixing phone call. Dunmb that was. Butts was just about washed up by then and and way over the hill and Bear was just starting to do his thing. Alabama did win the game that was involved.
Both coaches sued and won fairly big settlements too.
Scam and his Pa were in knew deep. At the time, they ahd no idea how good AU was going to be so they were short betting it with their neogtiations. Then, they did not know what they know now.
This is a huge problem for AU with the FBI involved. Lie to them and you get jail time. Lie to the NCAA and don’t get caught? Heck, you might win the Heisman and play for the NC and then FURTHER boost your NFL market value.
Either way the Newtons win $$ big. AU? If this ends up being very bad in a criminal sense, AU will get a REVISIT from the SEC and the NCAA and their stadium can be used for the next three years to shoot skeet.
Video News Blog » BREAKING NEWS: Cam Newton Cleared By NCAA to Play For Auburn Tigers – Bleacher Report
December 1st, 2010
5:39 pm
[...] Press. …BCS Championship: Breaking Down Auburn vs. Oregon Position By PositionBleacher ReportCam's the man in college football, and now he's free to playAtlanta Journal Constitution (blog)all 978 news [...]
SCAM Newton
December 1st, 2010
5:46 pm
HAHAHAHA… I’m smilin all the way to the bank. War Eagle. Whatever that means.
A.J. Green
December 1st, 2010
5:57 pm
Maybe I should have gotten my Dad to sell my jersey.
puppydawg
December 1st, 2010
6:26 pm
OK, Scam’s dumbass old man negotiated a deal w/ MSU for $180K and we’re supposed to believe that the Cow College got him for nothing??? I ain’t buying it. Auburn is going down and it’s going to be a rough landing. Can you say ‘death penalty’? And Coach Cheesestick should get a lifetime ban from coaching in the SEC.
puppydawg
December 1st, 2010
6:42 pm
The real tragedy is that the Newtons will be counting their millions while Auburn tries to remember what it was like to have a football team before the death penalty. Scam makes Reggie Bush look like a choirboy.
SID
December 1st, 2010
6:47 pm
After Sat. all this will be moot….SC 31-21
Okey Dokey
December 1st, 2010
6:48 pm
The NCAA says? That’s a start but the court of public opinion has already sentenced Newton and the Tigers and you know as well as I do that football fans are not going to accept Auburn’s success since all but the blind know that when something really, really stinks it’s rotten.
Dawg_Central
December 1st, 2010
6:48 pm
Anyone that doesn’t believe that Cam Newton knew his father was trying to get money from Miss State and probably other colleges are total idiots……he knew, just like he knew the laptop was stolen, just like he knew he was cheating on those test……..he is a proven cheater, liar, thief…….but Auburn loves this thug……wow!!…AJ Green got a 4 game suspension for selling a jersey that he owned and Cam Newton and his dad were asking for 180,000 bucks to play football and Cam get nothing……NCAA…you suck crack!!
Cam’s the man in college football, and now he’s free to play – Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) | Bet 31
December 1st, 2010
7:13 pm
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Courtney
December 1st, 2010
7:17 pm
Auburn is a dirty program
Sylvester Bill
December 1st, 2010
7:19 pm
Dawg_Central– You are so right about this. The entire deal is slimy!!
DAWG A
December 1st, 2010
7:24 pm
Everybody let up on the Auburn fans…. they rarely get to celebrate anything and if it takes a “dirty” player to get you to the promise land then CELEBRATE!!!! Shallow gain but for you guys it is a big deal!!
Football Fan
December 1st, 2010
7:38 pm
The investigation is not closed. Why all the lemming articles?
Football Fan
December 1st, 2010
7:39 pm
Also, it’s hard to root for a kid that flat out cheated at Florida. There were no reports refuting that.
say what
December 1st, 2010
7:40 pm
so this is what we have learned and know going forward: first if you steal a laptop, throw it out the window into the nearest dumpster after a police investigation and transfer to another school, 2nd, as long as the kids’ parents ask for money it is ok just not the kid. How many fathers do you think will be asking recruiters for money and be in their right as long as their son doesn’t know anything about it….that was some investigation by the NCAA, you opened up a new can of worms
Boca Baby
December 1st, 2010
7:45 pm
I do not believe that Cam’s father solicited money from Mississippi State and not Auburn. Come on! I was born at night but not last night.
Cam’s the man in college football, and now he’s free to play | SportSquare
December 1st, 2010
7:48 pm
[...] FootballCam’s the man in college football, and now he’s free to play [...]
Coffee Bluff DAWG
December 1st, 2010
8:10 pm
Why is AU protecting Cam from the media – he doesn’t have anything to hide does he?
Bama R
December 1st, 2010
8:29 pm
Auburn’s cheating as usual with lowder, dye and all the other crooks making the payments necessary to get the players. It never ends with the barners–cheat to win!
Former Dog
December 1st, 2010
8:33 pm
As a former UGA player you UGA “fans” really make me angry. I curse the day that blogs became a place where “fans” that did not attend GA could voice their rants on the web. Cam was cleared. Leave it alone. Let’s talk about our “thug” players and fans. I’ll start with the 11 players arrested. That’s right, 11. Then we can all go back to the AJC archive photos and look at the pictures of the trash that is left around the UGA campus from you “thugs” that roll into town, trash our place and then roll home to your trailers. Auburn: let’s talk about our players stomping on the Auburn logo 22 min. before the game. Let’s talk about the two GA fans that threw ice at the Auburn eagle as she circled the staduim. Didn’t see that on TV did you big guy? Let’s talk about the 14 GA fans arrested in a fight before the game. Oh, and let’s not forget the GA guy that set the toilet paper at Toomers Corner on fire 2 hours after the game. He was let go later that morning because he said he was lighting a cig. Something you all probably do when you first wake up. Richt needs to go, we all need to grow up. 6-6 sucks and we all hate it, but come on. Have a little respect for a team that beat my butt and is doing well. Let’s get rid of the trash and the trash talkers and the trash tailgaters and get back to GA football. By the way, it’s DOG not DAWG. Even my kids get that. GROW UP. There is always next year is getting old.
Chillahill43
December 1st, 2010
8:37 pm
And i recall ” oh when the facts come out ..,. Blah blah blah. Now that they have come out and it aint what you little beyatches wanted to hear.. Well its a conspiracy its a cover up. More is yet tp come. Hey. The jfk files and roswell new mexico still need some attention. Fools all of you that follow the sacramonious four letter network… Leemurs all.
Hey watch out its a long drop over the cliff… Pompous azzez rush in fast and follow even faster. A case study in stupidity- from cobb dawg. Bama dude to 90 % of you leg humpers and butt sniffers and all you bammmer jammers go get rammered. MAy your creator have mercy on your sorry souls..,! Its ok to ask — you can receive!!!! Hahagag. WDE!
Sorry..
December 1st, 2010
8:42 pm
All of the facts have not come to light. AU may be celebrating a bit early.
Chillahill43
December 1st, 2010
8:47 pm
Oh and you dumb azz people know what your old man does 24/7. Really thats what i thought . Can yall be that stupid. You dont even know what your mommas are doing half the day!! Fools all
Chillahill43
December 1st, 2010
8:51 pm
Maybe one day georgia will finish a season on top of the east. But 1980 was oh so long ago.. Yall act like UGA is some kind of powerhouse.. Yea the NoTre Dame of the south. … Lots of glory days and what ifs. Does not an elite program make… GD. DudeS. Ya”ll really need to get a life!!!
Cam’s the man in college football, and now he’s free to play - Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) | NCAA Time
December 1st, 2010
9:05 pm
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LHardingDawg
December 1st, 2010
9:05 pm
Former Dog is a fraud.
Jealous much?
December 1st, 2010
9:17 pm
A few quotes about jealousy for those who can’t handle the truth:
“Envy is the most stupid of vices, for there is no single advantage to be gained from it.” ~Honore de Balzac
“Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.” ~François Duc de La Rochefoucauld
“It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.” ~Aeschylus
“Envy is a waste of time.” ~Author Unknown
It is beyond me how people can have such sour grapes that it keeps them from enjoying the true God-given talents of a young athlete so rare and transient. Even if you are jealous, you would do us all a favor by keeping your sour-puss comments to yourself and allowing others to enjoy the beauty and talent without trying to ruin others’ shining moments. I think some of you really need to watch “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” this season and maybe it will inspire your hearts to grow several sizes and to be happy for another’s success for once even if it doesn’t benefit you in some way.
Sorry, but I think sometimes it needs to be said.
Former Dog
December 1st, 2010
9:27 pm
LHardingDawg
1989-1993 – You??????????? Stay behind your computer.
LHardingDawg
December 1st, 2010
9:37 pm
Former – Does ???????????? constitute trash talking?
Former Dog
December 1st, 2010
9:38 pm
Nope. I am just tired of losing and comments. I am done. Cheers to next year.
Fairley is mean:)
December 1st, 2010
10:10 pm
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=6&f=2770&t=6814908
Fairley is mean:)
December 1st, 2010
10:11 pm
Matt Hayes of Sporting News:
You should all be embarrassed. You know who you are, the great unwashed of the gotta-get-it, gotta-have-it, hyperbole-fueled world.
The same suckers that listened with bated breath while LeBron James explained where he’d “take my talents” next season, are also the gullible lemmings who jumped on the “let’s ride Cameron Newton out of college football” train because perception supersedes reality.
Have LeBron and his “talents” won anything since he stepped on the court in the NBA? Of course they haven’t.
Did Newton take money from Auburn or Mississippi State or anyone associated with those universities? No, the NCAA says, he didn’t.
In the everlasting struggle of perception vs. reality, perception goes down like a tall, cold glass of sweet tea. Reality, meanwhile, gets upchucked at every turn.
I’ll refer to the great sage of the 21st century, Josh Bynes, when reflecting on the three weeks of Newton Nonsense.
“Even if you guys were told the truth, you wouldn’t believe it,” said Bynes, Auburn’s star linebacker. “The truth doesn’t sell.”
Sadly, I’m beginning to believe him.
Reaction has replaced reflection in our ever-expanding need for knowledge – truth, lies, rumor, innuendo — in this Twitter-feed world. Last month, when allegations that Cecil Newton shopped his son, Cameron, in a pay-for-play scheme first arose, I wrote that they better be true. And it better lead to Auburn and Newton having accepted money, because if it didn’t, then what?
Now here we are. Cecil and (surprise!) an unscrupulous, would-be “marketer” (see: agent) shopped Cameron, without his knowledge, to Mississippi State. The inference was that if Mississippi State asked for money, you better believe Auburn did, too.
And because Newton was playing for Auburn, because he was the game’s best player and was leading the Tigers on an unthinkable journey to the national title game, well, that must mean he knew of the deal, took the money and would leave Auburn in shambles after the NCAA found out months or years later.
Opinions formed along blurred lines, the gap between truth and innuendo filled with whatever was easiest to run with.
There’s only one problem with this tale: It didn’t exactly play out the way television pundits and talk radio gabmasters, and message board mongers and truth-seeking journalists thought it would. It’s now complete, and whaddya know, Cam Newton is eligible to play.
Save the sanctimonious pleas that the NCAA should have penalized Newton for his father’s actions. Shove them in the same barf bag as the holier-than-thou grandstanding of Heisman Trophy voters proclaiming Newton hasn’t won with “integrity.”
He has, however, won after his team gave up a 24-spot on the road in the toughest place to play in college football. But instead of celebrating all that Newton has accomplished on the field, the truth-seekers are caught up in a swirling drainpipe of what-ifs and could-bes and you-never-knows — and there’s nowhere to go but right down the sewer.
Even a stand-up guy like Pat Haden has been caught up in the mess. Haden, Southern Cal’s athletic director, said Wednesday he was surprised by the NCAA’s ruling on Newton — specifically, that the NCAA didn’t hold Newton accountable for his parent’s actions like it did with Reggie Bush and his stepfather.
His stepfather? Pat, please, let me refresh your memory:
When the NCAA finds that assistant coach Todd McNair had or should have had knowledge of violations involving Bush and his parents; that McNair had communication about a prospective business arrangement with a “marketer” involved with Bush; that McNair provided false information during the investigation, it most certainly calls for 30 lost scholarships and a two-year postseason ban.
What did Josh Bynes say again? Even if you were told the truth, you wouldn’t believe it.
So now the truth is staring us directly in the face. Newton is innocent, and the Heisman Trophy vote is upon us.
Newton should be the biggest winner in the history of the award no matter what happens Saturday in the SEC Championship game. With Newton, Auburn is the best team in the nation. Without him, the Tigers struggle to win seven games.
That’s not perception, that’s reality.
Read more: http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/feed/2010-11/cam-newton-probe/story/truth-of-the-matter-newton-cleared-of-wrongdoing#ixzz16v7TIliS
Crazy
December 1st, 2010
10:48 pm
How long has it been since the Auburn/UGA game now? And this story is still getting this much attention among UGA fans?
Give it up already…the game is over…you lost. Cam Newton being declared ineligible, or Auburn being found guilty, will do nothing to help UGA…or the SEC for that matter. All it will do is help you go to sleep at night thinking that the only reason you lost is because Auburn played an ineligible player.
UGA has a rich football tradition, and you UGA fans are coming off sounding like a bunch of small, simple, whinning sore losers. Stop it…you are making yourselves look pathetic.
PS…I’m not a GT or Auburn fan.
Old Ball Sack
December 1st, 2010
10:50 pm
What I don’t like and none of you mention is how the Camburgular lays down every play, showboating, like he’s hurt. Karma is a bitch and he may get to experience the real deal. Maybe he won’t get up so quickly Saturday in Atlanta. Shame. NOT! SOS
PHIL
December 1st, 2010
11:26 pm
It may take a year, it might take, two, it may take more, but the day will come when Auburn is in the conference with SMU and Central Florida. AUBURN RED HEAD will still be talking about the Heisman Cam won……………………………..that was taken away.
carla
December 1st, 2010
11:43 pm
a school can only get the death penelity if they are already on probation auburns not so that could not happen and why cant people just let it be if its true it will come out and why are u so worried about it anyway
Big Red embroiled in turmoil – St. Louis Post-Dispatch
December 2nd, 2010
3:43 am
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TBone
December 2nd, 2010
9:31 am
Cam maybe free to play but you can your a$$ that he ain’t playing for free. Go Gamecocks!!!
S Cummins
December 2nd, 2010
12:01 pm
You are!!!!!!!!