For his role in a pay-to-play scheme — whatever that might have been — he’s been dubbed “Scam Newton,” and what a scam it will be if he doesn’t lead Auburn to a win in the BCS national championship. And yet, will it be?
Equally commended and condemned, Cam Newton was recently conferred into the Heisman Trophy club, some suggesting that it’s only a matter of time before he’s excommunicated from it since the investigation isn’t closed.
Second only to the Ducks’ sure-to-be-rousing uniforms, Newton will be the most polarizing figure at the Jan. 10 championship affair. Sorry, LaMichael James — you’re going to have to beat a couple more girls to enter the conversation.
Bombarded by media scrutiny, all of Newton’s past transgressions trickled out and found their ways to print. Not only did Newton’s father Cecil allegedly auction him to the highest bidders, Newton transferred from Florida because of an alleged academic cheating scandal.
Am I upset that Cecil Netwon shopped around his uber-talented son like an eBay item?
In exchange for a Saturday savior, is it too steep a price for the pastor to demand a small donation into his Sunday collection plate?
Economic determinism has spawned a cagey black market culture where agents peddle players to schools. NCAA rules are exploitative. College football is a Ponzi scheme with a glass ceiling for those situated at the bottom.
To be honest, I’m more upset that Cecil Netwon started the bidding war at a lowball price of $200,000, considering that a University of Chicago economist’s analysis published in Sports Illustrated found that Netwon is worth at least $3.5 million in gross Auburn revenue. Talk about selling him for a box of candy and some holiday cookies. And he calls himself a loving father.
All joking aside, Cecil Newton recognized something: he didn’t want his son to be a “rented mule.”
Amateurism ignores the financial rules of engagement. There is no market value in college athletics. Playing for the NCAA is nothing more than modern-day indentured servitude, a keep-track points system with freedom as the dangling carrot at the end of the rainbow.
The NCAA has formed a capitally copious, moralizing framework that safeguards its bankroll by disenfranchising athletes.
To that end, it relies on stereotypes and intensifies people’s prejudice toward athletes — the endemic belief that their celebrity status affords them opportunities the layman does not have; that athletes’ transgressions are inconsequential and punished inconsistently with a tendency toward leniency. That’s why it’s easy to implement, to convince the population that the rules in place are crafted with the intention of making sure athletes aren’t pampered throughout their lives.
And yet despite it all, I can sympathize with those who are morally outraged.
Is it too much to ask Newton to delay gratification? Hell, we all have to. For my money, I know I’m going to have to struggle up the corporate ladder rung by rung before landing a sick, paying job. Just because he’s supremely talented, should Cam Newton be given an express elevator to fame and fortune? Not at the collegiate level. That’s what the professional level is for.
At the end of the day, Newton is like a one-and-done college star.
He will treat college like nothing more than a preparatory test for the NFL. As much as I want to see him succeed, Newton reminds me too much of Vince Young, not only for his athletic ability but also his meteoric rise to fame.
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After leading Texas to the national championship in 2006, Young became an NFL one-hit wonder. Same goes for Newton if he leads Auburn to a win Jan. 10.
Yet, for all his ability, Young has not showed the temperament to succeed as a professional quarterback. Young was named the Offensive Rookie of the Year his first season, but doesn’t possess a dependable work ethic to develop into a superstar. As a result, the Tennessee Titans deactivated Young this year for the remainder of the season.
To date, Newton hasn’t allowed personal tumult to affect his on-field production, but I don’t know if he understands that he cannot rely solely on his talent at the next level.
Everything has come to him too easily. Examining all that has transpired for Young and Newton, the common denominator is simple: The two are hard-pressed to delay gratification.
Look no further than Cecil Newton asking for money for evidence.
All that said, do I want Newton to clutch the national championship trophy? Not if it means college football’s anti-Tim Tebow develops into a reincarnated Young.
Then again, wouldn’t it make for good theater — Newton, the NCAA’s martyr triumphantly holding the money gauntlet trophy that created him?
