3.10.24 Football Articles

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al.com

Cam Newton: ‘Still to this day, people think I took money’

Updated: Mar. 09, 2024, 7:11 p.m.|Published: Mar. 09, 2024, 7:00 p.m.

7–9 minutes

Former Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel said last week he will not attend the Heisman Trophy presentation again until the Heisman Trust restores the 2005 trophy to former Southern Cal running back Reggie Bush.

Manziel won the Heisman Trophy in 2012.

Cam Newton won the Heisman Trophy in 2010 as Auburn’s quarterback. He has not attended the Heisman Trophy ceremony since, and while Newton supports Manziel’s stance on Bush, he has stayed away for a different reason.

Newton talked about the Heisman Trophy on two podcasts this week. On his “4th & 1″ podcast on Friday, Newton addressed Bush’s situation. He also appeared on the “NFL Players Second Acts” podcast with hosts Roman Harper and Peanut Tillman, who played with Newton on the Carolina Panthers.

While visiting with his former NFL teammates, Newton was asked which award he held in higher regard – his Heisman Trophy or his NFL Most Valuable Player Award, which he won as the Panthers QB in 2015.

“The prestige of the Heisman is obviously more,” Newton said, “but I haven’t been to a Heisman event since I left, and it’s because they told my dad he couldn’t come to the ceremony. The biggest moment of my life, the most influential person of my life can’t share the biggest time of my life.

“Going back to that time, you have to be reminded, the NCAA was doing a thorough investigation. ‘Mr. Newton, it’s best if you don’t.’ And my dad is similar to me. Any extracurricular distractions, I don’t want. ‘Son, I’ll be in the hotel room.’ And I just remember like after I won the Heisman, I just kept looking at my mom, and she knew. She was like, ‘Yeah, baby, let’s go to the room.’ I’m that person that my dad is such a strong figure in my life. He sacrificed a lot just so I could play. And if you remember that NCAA thing, somebody had to take a fall. My dad: ‘I’ll jump on the grenade.’ Boom! He couldn’t come to no games. He was the bad guy, selling his son to get money. He didn’t do that. They just had to paint that to have a copout.

“My dad ain’t no different than Lamar Ball. No different than Archie Manning. No different than King Richard. No different than Ja Morant’s father. No different than any hands-on father – Deion Sanders. And it’s like I still have a hard time looking at that award as something I just take pride in.”

The NCAA determined after a 13-month investigation that Cecil Newton and former Mississippi State player Kenny Rogers sought money in exchange for Cam Newton’s commitment to Mississippi State. Auburn was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Cam Newton was declared ineligible twice -- Nov. 10, 2010, and Nov. 30, 2010, -- but was reinstated in time for Auburn’s next game in each case. The NCAA determined Rogers tried to act as Newton’s athletic scholarship agent, but Newton was reinstated each time because he had no knowledge of any pay-for-play scheme.

Cecil Newton later said he “willfully fell on the sword” to keep his son eligible during Auburn’s undefeated 2010 BCS national-championship season.

Cam Newton said he had a specific reason for choosing Auburn coming from Blinn College, and it wasn’t money.

“I’m choosing Auburn because they had 22 seniors, and I knew the importance of leadership,” Newton said. “And I said to myself, ‘If I can get a guy, not at 16, 17, but a guy at like 21, 22 to understand, “Yo, you trying to get to the league, too? All right, let’s work.”’ And I knew it would be easier to convince that body of people to commit to something rather than a team that only had four seniors returning.”

Newton said he vividly remembers when he became aware of the NCAA investigation.

“Still to this day, people think I took money,” Newton said. “And the dollar amount that they said that I was speculated of taking was $200,000. (Expletive), I ain’t never seen $200,000. Not at that time in my life. I remember this (expletive) like it was yesterday.

“Gene Chizik, head coach of the Auburn Tigers at that time when I was here, he said he wanted to have a conversation with me and my parents after a game. This was like we played on Saturday, so we came in Sunday. And we were sitting down in his office, my myself, my mom, my dad, and then Gene, coach Chizik, was sitting across from us. He was like, ‘Yeah, you’re about to go into an investigation. The NCAA feels that somebody benefited from money.’

“So the question was asked: Well, how much money? He said $200,000. There was a pause, I looked at my mom. ‘Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.’ Like we laughed. But we was laughing at him, and he wasn’t laughing. We was like, ‘Are you serious? 200,000.’ But for the people who don’t know, they still think he took money.

“Bro, $200,000 in my culture, you’re going to see that (expletive) some way. I’m trying to tell you – a car, some enhancements to the house. My father still is a preacher to this day and was then, too. You would have seen some enhancements to the church. Or some type of lifestyle upgrade. Man, the (expletive) looked at years and years of bank statements. It was almost embarrassing to provide. ‘(Expletive), we broke.’ Pressing the shift button, holding the shift button: B-R-O-K-E exclamation point. We broke.”

But Newton said he wasn’t naïve enough to think Heisman Trophy winners hadn’t received extra benefits.

“If y’all think Reggie Bush was the only person that was getting any type of financial compensation (at Southern Cal), you are out of your rabbit-ass mind,” Newton said. “… If you think Reggie Bush was the only Heisman winner to get any type of compensation, in that great prestige of the award – come on now, people.”

Bush returned his Heisman Trophy in 2010 after the NCAA levied penalties at the end of a four-year investigation of Southern Cal’s football program.

The NCAA said the case centered around impermissible benefits given to “Student-Athlete 1,” widely assumed to be Bush even though he is not named in the 67-page public infractions report, although USC had to vacate statistics and records achieved by the running back.

The Heisman Trust has told Bush it won’t consider returning his trophy until the NCAA reconsiders its penalties against Southern Cal.

A week ago, Manziel asked the Heisman Trust to return Bush’s trophy and stated his intention to stay away from the annual presentation ceremony until that happened.

Newton said Bush won the Heisman Trophy “fair and square,” and he found it “very honorable” for Manziel to call for its return.

“Time cures all,” Newton said, “and I hope in my lifetime, I’m able to see the day Reggie Bush gets his Heisman Trophy back.”

Although Newton’s Heisman presentation ceremony took some of the shine off the award for the quarterback, he said “You going to need an Army” if the Heisman Trust ever asked for his trophy.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.

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[Mikey 16,622]

Sadly, there are still Auburn fans who assume Cam got that money. The NCAA busted their butts for months trying to find something and there simply was nothing. Why won't people believe the truth? There were allegations that the money was used to upgrade Cecil Newton's church. I was passing through Ga. and out of curiosity went by that church and looked. The door was pad locked and a notice from the City posted on the door stated the building was unsafe. There were weeds head high growing up in the parking lot. The whole Cam got money thing was BS.

[JuscAUse! 1,416]

And yet a huge percentage of our own fans still believe it. If the NCAA had discovered ANYTHING at all, we'd have been kept out of the championship. Heck, it would have been easier for them if they had found something. 

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