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For those of you who believe in the myth of “amateur” athletics, I have a solution for you:
Support NCAA legislation that pays the coaches and executives in education, too.
Yeah, let’s give Nick Saban and Dan Mullen books, room and board to law school or medical school or whatever higher degree of education they aspire to. Let’s level the playing field and give all the NCAA employees a shot at more education instead of more money.
The slave catchers, moralizers and Tim Tebow worshippers — the men and women troubled that Cecil Newton’s boy is going to win the Heisman Trophy — obviously believe there’s something sacred and special about “amateur” status.
Why not make the coaches special, too?
You think Dan Mullen isn’t upset Auburn cost him his chance to pimp Cam Newton for a new, fatter contract or a job somewhere else?
If you read my column in late July about Reggie Bush giving back his Heisman Trophy, you know exactly how I feel about the NCAA, the college football and basketball plantations it runs and the media slave catchers who uphold outdated, unethical NCAA rules like they’re the Ten Commandments.
It’s all a for-profit joke disguised as a plea for integrity.
Cam Newton is the perfect player to win the Heisman Trophy. He’s ridiculously talented, ridiculously profitable for Auburn, and the controversy surrounding his record-breaking season exposes the ridiculousness of the fraud perpetrated by the NCAA.
Cecil Newton is the devil because he hatched a pay-for-play scheme, but the men and women who prop up the NCAA’s play-for-others'-pay scheme are pillars of the community.
I normally don’t care who wins the Heisman Trophy. But I’ll be outraged Saturday night if Cam doesn’t win by a record margin. The distance between Cam and college football’s second-best player (whoever he is) is as great as the distance between NCAA supporters and common sense.
People used to care about being on the right side of history. Now we don’t. It’s all about instant gratification and cashing in.
The media chased down Reggie Bush and chopped off his Heisman Trophy. And now we’re trying to do it again to Cam Newton based on hearsay and gossip.
Printing the allegations of anonymous, ax-grinding boosters, coaches and street agents doesn’t take much courage. Supporting a powerful institution (NCAA) that exploits the poor (athletes) for the economic benefit of the rich (coaches and executives) is what we’ve been doing unabated in America ever since Ronald Reagan introduced trickle-down economics.
Cecil Newton wanted his trickle before Wall Street collapsed.
Cecil’s mind-set is no different than Urban Meyer’s. Urban cashed in for more money at Bowling Green, Utah and Florida and is now preparing to rest comfortably for a year or two until the next team or school makes it rain on his accountant.
You think Urban (or any coach) believes in the NCAA and its antiquated rules? You think Urban was in it for the kids? Or do you think he was in it for the kids, the competition and the lifetime financial security?
But we want Cecil Newton to have more integrity than the men and women who run the NCAA’s morally bankrupt game? We want Cecil Newton to have more integrity than the sportswriters/broadcasters who clamor for a playoff system and more games and more money and more exploitation?
When he comes back, pay Urban Meyer in books, room and board and let’s see how long before he tries to cut a secret deal for cash upfront.
You realize there’s a chance Auburn never gave Cecil Newton the money? Yes, we can be relatively sure he asked. But we have no proof Auburn ever gave it to him. A Tigers booster might have promised to give Cecil the money after the season, after Cam had declared for the draft. Or, hell, there’s even a 1 percent chance someone explained to Cecil the irresponsible and unsophisticated way he went about trying to solicit a payment.
So, some people want to deny a kid the Heisman Trophy because his father wanted what all the other adults in college athletics are getting — a payday.
Child, please.
The right side of history isn’t the side that says the Heisman Trust will one day strip Cam Newton of its award. The right side of history is the side that recognizes and fights the injustice of the current NCAA system.
