Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs released a statement Tuesday morning essentially endorsing the Stand By Your Cam Badge of Honor posted Friday on TWER.
Via the OA-News:
“In the past 24 hours, a lot of allegations have surfaced that date back two years ago and further. These allegations and rumors about Cam Newton are unfortunate and sad because they seem intent on tearing down the reputation of a young man who has done everything we’ve asked him to do. Cam has been and continues to be completely honest with us. Cam is, by all accounts, a great kid. Any discussion of academic records is a clear violation of federal privacy laws. We will not go down that path or stoop to that level as others have apparently done. We will, however, emphatically say that Cam is eligible to play football at Auburn University both academically and athletically. I am proud of this young man and the progress he has made to be a better football player and a better man. We are truly blessed that Cam is a part of the Auburn family, and we support him 100 percent.”
Graphic by Amy Quarles.
If you have not read the Greg Doyel column on CBS Sports.com do so immediately – it is a must read for Auburn fans now:
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/14267701/consider-the-source-on-newton-story
I used to think Finebaum’s hatred of Urban Meyer was “penis envy” (envy of Florid’a then success on the football field) – and just another facet of his carrying the water for SaBear and UA-T.
Man oh man do I get it now. What a weasel.
If these new allegations are true, then Cam Newton will have to deal with it. End of story there. If these are facts, then… that’s the way it is.
But what it says about Meyer (and Mullen and Bond, and their tools in the media) is that situational ethics is alive and well at the UofF. Why didn’t this all come out when Newton was AT FLORIDA? The answer, obviously, is IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BURIED. What shines through here is that if you’re a football player at Florida with some problems, not a problem… but if you subsequently transfer out, and manage to be successful in spite of your past problems, then you’re a traitor, and Urban Meyer (and his stooges Mullen and Bond) will do anything they can to ruin your life. That’s situational ethics in action, folks.
I wish all these scumbags would just put everything on the table instead of dripping it out one little sensational piece at a time. Get it ALL out. DO YOUR WORST. If Cam Newton is guilty, then he needs to deal with it.
But in the process, everyone will know just how low these bitter, angry, frustrated old men will go to torment someone that has the AUDACITY to leave the University of Florida. So far that includes breaking (Federal) law.
Great job Jay Jacobs.
I think this latest salvo will backfire on whoever is behind this – exposing them as purposefully attacking the character of a 22 year-old student athlete and calling into question the credibility of the earlier claims of payment for playment. (see what I did there?)
I’ve been saying this all day: If you’re going to grab a Tiger by his tail… you better have a plan for dealing with his teeth. If both us and Florida make the SEC Championship game, that could get UGLY.
Glad Jacobs came out and said something. I think Cam is a rehabilitated human being. However, Auburn had to expect some of this to come out if they knew the whole story of his background. It’s a risk you take when recruiting and accepting young men with a “background.” By all accounts, though, Cam has accepted responsibility for his past and turned into a fine young man.
My main problem with this latest deal is that it’s a completely moot point. The man has admitted he made mistakes and did dumb things while he was there. He paid for it by getting the boot – obviously the transfer was no different than quitting right before you’re about to get fired. He went from being a fawned over D-1 stud to being a relatively anonymous guy at a juco in BFE Texas. He has paid his dues. People change. Even if he comes out at some point and has to say, “yes, I did that”, it in no way affects anything that has happened since then. I hope FoxSports and the U of F pay serious financial consequences to the Newton family. He may not have been getting paid before, but with a good lawyer, they ought to be able to make 200G’s a laughable amount now.
That Doyel piece is pretty good. I didnt know he was a UF alum.
Whoever leaked the academic piece from UF could face federal charges.
All this stuff happened under the “watchful eye” of Urban Meyer and his staff at Florida. I think it is pretty telling about the program and individuals they are fostering down there and how it can corrupt a young man in a short amount of time.
I mean, a lot of people choose to think the worst of Cam’s dad … but what if he looked at all the trouble that his son got into with Mullen as one of his coaches at Florida and THAT was one of the reasons he didn’t want his son at Mississippi State.
Seriousy – I think this latest attack just landed Cam a lot of support and may have solidified his Heisman candidacy.
I was going to do this as a post, but I’ll just drop it in here since I have no time to do a proper piece.
NYT, ESPN, FoxSports: Watchdogs or waterboys?
Let’s say you are a reporter. You want to make a name for yourself. You want to be respected but (in these troubled times in journalism) you want to keep your job too. A source floats you information about the current frontrunner for the Heisman trophy. The information is about an incident of cheating. But what about the source of this information? Do you write this story if the source is a former student or teammate of the current Heisman frontrunner? Maybe you stick your neck out and go with that source if you are Thayer Evans of FoxSports, being the jackass that he seems to be. He does seem to take a certain glee in taking on Cam Newton and Auburn if you look at his Twitter feed. But if you are a reporter going with an unnamed source you are probably more comfortable if you have a history with the source. They have helped you out in the past maybe. OR the source is in a position of authority.
Two leaks to the media in two weeks. We have a game of character assassination going on with Auburn and the Newtons versus the source(s) dropping bombshells to ESPN, The New York Times and now FoxSports. It’s an effective strategy in that the defenders can only defend themselves so much. The accuser(s) can take potshots from the shadows with their media enablers as their mouthpiece. It’s brilliant. Two out of the three are “respected” for their news gathering skills. Two out of the three really stuck their neck out verifying stories dropped in their lap by someone with an ax to grind.
The funny thing about this is that the more the source of this information goes back to the media (and who’s to say something else isn’t out there forthcoming in the weeks ahead) the more we can infer about them from the information they release. Only certain people have information about academic records at the University of Florida. Only certain people know what caused Cam Newton to leave UF. A professor. A student affected. A teammate or friend told in confidence. Or a part of the coaching staff, current or former.
This list gets narrowed down each day, each leak, each smear.
If you were a journalist … I insist upon this point … if you were going to go with only one source for an entire story … you’ve got to trust that source wholeheartedly (unless you are a hack.)
Thayer will burn.
Just heard fourth hand from one unnammed source that Thayer Evans likes to have sex with little boys.
Has anybody considered that Thayer is attacking a black heisman candidate and at the same time pushing Kellen Moore, a white candidate?
November 9, 2010
Will Collier
AuburnSports.com Columnist
Talk about it in The Bunker
FoxSports.com writer Thayer Evans published a story today alleging Auburn quarterback Cameron Newton “had three different instances of academic cheating while attending the University of Florida.”
The story follows several days of editorial attacks on Newton by Thayer, a former stringer for the New York Times.
Two independent sources with detailed knowledge of the UF academic discipline system during the period in question have disputed the Evans story. According to the sources, no allegations of academic impropriety regarding Cam Newton were sent to the Florida Student Conduct Committee at any time either during or after Newton’s time at UF.
Alleged wrongdoings by Cameron Newton while at Florida was never sent to the Florida Student Conduct Committee.
Two independent sources with detailed knowledge of the UF academic discipline system during the period in question have disputed the Evans story. According to the sources, no allegations of academic impropriety regarding Cam Newton were sent to the Florida Student Conduct Committee at any time either during or after Newton’s time at UF.
“Nothing was reported, officially or unofficially” says one source, who did not wish to be identified. “The formal process is for allegations to go through the Student Conduct Committee. If [any allegations against Newton] didn’t follow that process, then they didn’t follow the rules.”
Newton enrolled at Florida in the spring of 2007 and transferred to Blinn College in January of 2009.
Per the source, no charges against Newton were ever brought to the Student Conduct Committee during that time.
The source also indicated that no Florida football players have ever been officially reported to the UF Student Conduct Committee for academic violations during Urban Meyer’s tenure.
According to the source, student arrests are subject to additional discipline via the Student Conduct Committee, but it is not uncommon for students in such situations “to cut a deal with the Dean of Students’ office before coming to the Committee.”
At the time of Newton’s enrollment at UF, if attempts to informally settle academic disputes failed, academic violations issues were referred from the Dean of Students office to the Student Conduct Committee, where a hearing chaired by a member of the UF Honor Board would be conducted.
No charges against Newton, to the first source’s knowledge, were ever sent to the UF Student Conduct Committee.
A second, independently verified source, also with detailed knowledge of the Florida student disciplinary system, took issue with Thayer’s assertion that Newton, had he actually been charged with academic misconduct, would have been in danger of expulsion. “I worked ten or twelve cases,” the second source says, “and I never saw anyone get expelled.”
The second source, who also declined to be identified, also says no charges regarding Newton were ever brought to the Student Conduct Committee, noting, “If Cameron Newton would have come before the committee, we would have known about it.”
The second source also expressed indignation over the possible leak of student information to the media.
“That is completely confidential. We’re not allowed to say anything to anyone.
“The person that was in charge of [students’] academic records is a very ethical person. Someone like him would never have released anything.”
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/11/video_watch_listen_to_emotiona.html
Notice that in Chizik’s address to the media that when he said to go talk with Newton’s former coaches he said: “… his high school coach … [long pause] … his junior college coach …”
http://auburn.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1150363
Keep taking the high road by sternly defending Cam, his standing on the team and the Auburn program. Let other fans take shots and keep it positive. They are the ones that look petty.
War Eagle
and on the road to 14-0
ESPN story quotes Stoops as saying that they saw nothing wierd or improper during their recruitment of Newton. The resistance continues to mount.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5783876
‘In Oklahoma, coach Bob Stoops said the Sooners didn’t come across anything irregular as they were recruiting Newton.
Stoops said at his news conference Tuesday that he “didn’t notice anything and none of our coaches did as we were recruiting him.”
Stoops said he knew of “nothing at all” out of the ordinary and that Newton’s recruitment “could not have been better.” ‘
Sounds like SAC needs to head down to Gainesville and look around a little bit.