Cameron Newton: More Than His Uniform is Dirty

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Cameron Newton is in the news once more, and it again has nothing to do with the No. 2 Auburn quarterback's place atop the short list of 2010 Heisman Trophy candidates.

Newton is alleged to have been caught cheating while he was a student-athlete at the University of Florida, according to a report published on FOXSports.com late Monday night.

You know, I used to cause a fair amount of trouble myself in high school, and that's around the time I first heard the term "behavioral pattern."

Get a verbal reprimand from a teacher? It happens. A few more? Red flags no doubt. Suspended a time or two? There's your behavioral pattern.

Newton attended Florida in 2007-08, where he backed up Gators star quarterback Tim Tebow. Late in that second season, he was arrested for his involvement in the theft of a laptop from a fellow student's dorm room.

Newton transferred out of Florida and played last year at Blinn (Texas) College. In December, his charge relating to the laptop theft was dropped.

And just last week, Newton, arguably the best college football player in the country this season, had his and his family's names drug through the mud in connection with what amounts to a quarterback-for-hire scenario. Another man claiming to represent the young athlete allegedly sought $180,000 for Newton to attend Mississippi State, telling his contacts there that other schools were willing to pay as much as $200,000 for Newton's services.

Newton and his father deny any wrongdoing. Of course they do.

Now, we're learning that Newton was accused of cheating three different times while at Florida, according to the FOXSports report. With the development, it's suddenly a tad more difficult to believe that he and his father are squeaky clean when it comes to the play-for-pay allegation.

Stories about college programs cheating and college athletes overcoming personal difficulties are ubiquitous in sports. Just a month ago, when Newton established himself as a Heisman front-runner, his interview requests probably tripled, and I'd bet every writer he talked to asked about his troubled past. Every story I read about him in October included a quote from Newton about how "those days are behind me." At the time, he was only being asked about the laptop.

But now that we've got the Kenny Rogers story and the Florida cheating allegation, you can't help but wonder what's next for Newton. This late in the season, the only thing that's next is more football. Behavioral patterns and their consequences be damned; Auburn's got a national championship to win.

Comments

[DaveE]

I really don't see how this affects him now. If he said his troubles are "behind" him, and new things from his past surface...aren't they "behind" him too?

Even if he were expelled from Florida for cheating, it wouldn't change his eligibility at Auburn and probably wouldn't have stopped other major college programs from offering him.

Aren't Alabama and Georiga currently in a recruiting battle for a player that was expelled from another school after a domestic assault conviction?

To me this looks like an all out smear. So the kid isn't a saint. Few players recruited to or playing in the SEC are. It is what it is. So what?