Scam Newton headlines a tragic college football season

Not so fast Cam, you're only eligible because of a stupid loophole, according to ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski.

Written by Wade Avery.

The 2010 college football season has provided some of the best football I have ever seen in my life. Future NFL star Andrew Luck and the nation’s top coach Jim Harbaugh have led Stanford in the sickest way possible to a school record 11-1 regular season and are looking to produce the Cardinal’s first BCS bowl berth since the 2000 Rose Bowl. Oregon has probably the most exciting offense to watch in college history and there have been shocking upsets aplenty. To top it all off, the teams that everybody hates (Texas, Florida, USC, Notre Dame) are having awful seasons and receiving the beat downs they deserve. 

That being said, there has been enough tragedy, corruption, and adversity to make what seems like another great year of college football a season everyone wants to forget. Here are some of the events and actions that have tainted this season:

• Rutgers defensive lineman Eric LeGrand remains paralyzed from a hit against Army
• Mississippi State defensive linemen Nick Bell lost his battle with cancer only weeks after playing in what would be his last football game
• Three Southern Mississippi players were shot outside of a night club, leaving one with severe voice damage and another in a wheelchair the rest of his life
• Agent scandals have tainted the reputations of many elite programs such as Georgia (AJ Green), UNC (everybody), and South Carolina (Wesley Saunders)
• Last but CERTAINLY not least SCAM NEWTON

If there is one thing that has made this catastrophe laced college football season devastating for me, it is Auburn QB Cam “Scam” Newton and his painful antics. I’m not going to deny that he is a phenomenal football player. He makes stout SEC defenses look like Menlo College every single week and can beat you any way he pleases. All talent and on field performance aside, I die inside when people talk about him. The first thing he taught me was that I could get kicked out of one college, get caught throwing a stolen computer out of a third floor window, and face felony charges and STILL get into Auburn. Well if Jeremiah Masoli can get into Ole Miss with every drug and theft charge in the book, why not?! But that is not the only reason he ticks me off. He has a hurricane of allegations swirling around him that has made his presence in college football questionable at best. 

For starters, Newton apparently had somebody acting as an agent during his recruitment process that tried to sell Cam to schools in return for money. In addition to the agent figure, Newton’s father, Cecil, was apparently offering schools Cam’s commitment for money in what was called a “pay-for-play” plan. It was later reported that Cam and Cecil said in separate phone conversations that the “pay-for-play” plan was their only option and his commitment would be based on how much cash the Newton’s received. How much money did the Newton family want? It is reported that Cecil wanted between $150,000 and $200,000 for Cam’s commitment. But the controversy doesn’t end there. There are also allegations that at Florida, his first school, Cam was caught cheating on three exams and turning in other peoples’ papers with is name on it, which nearly led him to expulsion at Florida. 

And what do Cam and Cecil have to say about these allegations? It went from ‘I didn’t do anything’ to ‘no comment’ to not even speaking to the media. Really? You claim you did nothing wrong but at the same time you won’t talk to anyone about anything? It isn’t that hard, he just has to come out and tell us what he did and he needs to stand by that. Obviously he won’t come out and admit he did anything, he’s in the middle of a historic season. Seriously though, who won’t speak to the media because they want to hide their innocence? It’s common knowledge people, if he won’t talk there is something wrong. I will never be able to watch him play the same way I watch LaMichael James play because I don’t know if he should be on the field or not. 

Naive Auburn fans can only protect you for so long, Cam. 

LaMike was charged with assault, found guilty, accepted his penalty, and got on with his life and is still in the Heisman race. Newton won’t stand up to anything and continues to get defended by naive Auburn fans that would obviously attack him if he played for any other school. 

As if seeing him on the field was bad enough, the fact that certain Heisman voters continue to treat him like a god is what really irritates me. Did everybody totally forget about Reggie Bush?! Any one of Newton’s many allegations is just as severe as everything that Bush did and yet people think that every single one of the numerous allegations against Newton is false because anybody can make things up.  The reason I didn’t put “Heisman contender” next to Andrew Luck’s name is because Cam Newton pretty much has that award on lock, which is garbage. I can’t stand to see players with squeaky-clean records like Andrew Luck and Kellen Moore take a back seat to somebody who is up to his neck in controversy after one of the best running backs ever lost his Heisman for almost the same reason. 

I understand he was just cleared to play by the NCAA because his dad broke the rules and I guess Cam had not even the slightest idea what the man around the most in his life was doing. The other thing that people seem to forget is that Cam acknowledged that his recruitment would be decided based on payment during a phone call that was tragically unable to be recovered. I’d be very willing to bet that in five or so years it is uncovered that Newton lied to the NCAA and knew about the entire thing, but since he is long gone from the college game the only people that will be punished are the ones who had success playing by the rules. 

I will totally understand if people disagree with me and back the NCAA and Newton, but I just want to let it known that I do not trust Newton and his family. This isn’t some Michael Oher case where the player is being innocently caught in the crossfire of an investigation, Cam himself had all sorts of direct ties with the case. He just got incredibly lucky that his dad was in on it to take the blame because what dad wouldn’t take the bullet for his son that is probably going to style him with millions of dollars down the line? And if you think that making up allegations is just a new way for people to bring down the top players, why doesn’t every other amazing football player face 20 different rules violations? 

When he wins the Heisman, I just hope his portrait ends up next to OJ Simpson’s picture.