Post date: Jul 20, 2011 8:29:31 PM
Originally published November 5, 2010.
As I'm sure all of my fellow loyal Auburn fans know, Cam Newton is at the center of a recent recruiting violation allegation (violation allegation, that slips off the tongue nicely). Allegedly, Kenny Rogers, a former Mississippi State football player from the early 1980's, contacted John Bond (Rogers' teammate at Mississippi State), while claiming he represented Cam Newton. Rogers told Bond that Mississippi State could get Cam Newton's committal for $180,000, and that another school had already offered him $200,000. Bond did the proper thing and reported this to the NCAA... in July. Cecil Newton, Cam Newton's father, has been completely compliant with the NCAA and has produced both personal bank statements, and financial statements concerning his church. The church, to many, appears to be a smoking gun. Cecil Newton is the pastor of one "Holy Zion Center of Deliverance" in Newnan, GA, which was in danger of being demolished in 2009, but has since come up to code. Zealots across the internet believe the money Rogers was attempting to extort from Mississippi State, or that he claimed he was offered by another school, was funneled into Cecil Newton's church. Just to repeat myself, Cecil Newton produced bank statements for himself and for his church to the NCAA, at least a month ago. Theses are the facts, and this is all that has been given to the public.
I would now like to bring up the media's role in this story. Sportswriters across America are calling for Newton's, and Auburn's heads. Auburn is being reviled as a stain on the 2010 college football season while Newton is being called "worse than Reggie Bush". The horrible, horrible, truth, or so the media tells us, is that Auburn paid Cam Newton $200,000 to play football for us. Now you might be wondering to yourself, "What the hell?" Don't worry, you are not sick, mentally unstable, or an imbecile, you are, in fact, rational. Congratulations! But for the rest of you who think "Auburn paid Cam" is a legitimate thing to even speculate on at this point, let me elaborate.
1) Kenny Rogers is a shady human being. In addition to this scandal, Rogers is under investigation by the NFLPA for falsely claiming he was employed by the organization. Who's to say he wasn't exploiting the acquaintance he had with Cecil Newton in order to pursue selfish desires? Apparently, for the media, his history isn't a reflection of his integrity, and he is a standup fellow who they would likely trust with their first-born's life.
2) Cam Newton, nor Cecil Newton, have been cited as being in any way involved with this attempted transaction. Cecil Newton has stated that he is an acquaintance of Rogers, but has publicly denied any wrongdoing. The NCAA has been investigating this for a while now and I have a feeling Cecil has had a lawyer ready. If Cecil's lawyer was ok with him publicly coming out and confidently denying these allegations, I would expect there to be no case against him.
3) Auburn has not been mentioned in this investigation. Period. Mississippi State is the only school that has been explicitly brought up. Until someone can produce evidence of a money trail leading from Auburn to Cam or Cecil, any allegation of Auburn paying Cam is pure RUMOR or SPECULATION.
For the media, the allegations that have come out up to this point warrant Cam being immediately suspended, making him ineligible for the Heisman, and Auburn's wins being revoked. I have even read lines such as "guilty until proven innocent". To me, the firestorm that his allegation has produced is the definitive representation of the media's bias against Auburn. To so vehemently attack an individual, Cam Newton, or a school, Auburn University, without ANY EVIDENCE to support your claims, is the purest example of agenda-pushing. I invite you to read both articles below concerning the allegation, which, perhaps not so surprisingly, come from Fox News. Be prepared to be infuriated, but I encourage you to leave insightful, rational comments regarding their unethical treatment of this story.
I would like to end with this: If Auburn did in fact pay Cam or Cecil to bring Cam to play for them, that will be both extremely disappointing and embarrassing. What such a revelation would NOT do, is change my opinion on the media. Their conduct regarding this story, in terms of their blatant blind eye towards the available evidence, their misguided innuendo and speculation, and their deliberate dissemination of misinformation to public, definitively proves (to me) that these so-called "sports news providers" are nothing more than tabloids and should be treated as such.