Dennis Dodd speculates that win, lose or draw, we won’t hear from Cam Newton (again) after Saturday’s game in the Georgia Dome.
One or the other is going to happen Saturday at the SEC championship game.
Cam Newton has not been available to the media for the past two games against Georgia and Alabama. That will be an issue this week in the SEC championship game. As you can see from the language below, all players and coaches must be made available to the media in an open locker room after the game or a school risks being fined.
I believe Auburn will take the hit. Why change now when the punishment is, say, $10,000? Joe Paterno absorbed a $15,000 fine a couple of years ago in the Rose Bowl when he didn’t open his locker room.
I was at the Georgia game. I don’t believe this is Auburn’s decision. I think the school has been told by the NCAA and/or the FBI to clam up. They don’t want the media to have the opportunity to ask Cam pointed questions.
If that’s true, were I Auburn, I know where I’d send the bill.
If that’s true.
Get The Picture 
That is assinine. If he’s clamming up at someone’s orders its his Daddy’s lawyer’s or Auburn’s lawyers or both.
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That’s not even 10% of what they paid him. Cost of doing bidness.
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I don’t think the FBI would want or has the power to tell someone to clam up.
Also, this is a duh-article. Of course he won’t say anything. It’s like saying you think some football will be played.
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I think it’s the lawyers, Cam’s, Cecil’s, and Auburn’s. Too much risk of Cam blurting a damaging impolitic truth, even if it isn’t a smoking gun statement.
The Feds don’t mind either. They like their evidence originally sourced, first hand, and untainted. They’re right about that too. Defense lawyers are skilled at getting evidence excluded.
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This is me patiently waiting for the crap to hit the fan at Auburn. 😀
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Auburn will also be getting a bill from Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC.
This is all attorney driven.
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Shame they can’t trust Cam to only talk about football. Though, if I was his lawyer, I’d do the same thing. The kid obviously loves the spotlight and wants people to take notice of him.
And I’m just gonna say it. After hearing him talk and knowing what we all know, isn’t it possible he has a learning disability/deficiency or something? I’m not trying to be mean, but sometimes he borders on acting mildly retarded.
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Since he has been in the spotlight, I have looked at him a few times and thought to myself….”he looks like he has nothing going on in that head of his”.
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Perhaps the difference in athlete-student vs. student-athlete could explain your question about Newton’s intellect? Mildly retarded? That’s a bit loud for me. His personality reminds me a lot of Terrell Owens. Vince Young was the same type college qb who was able to bring his team back against the odds. Texas won a NC riding upon his shoulders. Auburn expects to do much the same thing. Vince’s first score on the NFL Wonderlic was a dismal 5 out of 50. NFL qb’s are expected to score at least 20. That test was followed by a “second” test where he managed to score 16. Later teams researched his background and with additional testing concluded that he was bright but had ADD that prevented him from learning or testing well on reading-oriented tests. Don’t know how or if that affects his ability to read a defense or study an offensive game plan. Regardless of what some may think of his coordinator skills, Bobo has a knack for coaching college quarterbacks. Apparently, it was his evaluation that Newton would make a fine tight end. Jamarcus Russell and Vince Young were incredible athletes that made big bucks in the NFL. I have no doubt some NFL team will roll the dice, spend the benjamin$ and we will all get the chance to see young Newton at the next level. For very long? I’m not sure.
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I think if you dropped Cam into a 50-acre field where there was one pile of dog poop, he would find it, fall in it, and roll in it faster than Mark Bradley can get Paul Johnson on speed dial. I think the mildly retarded act is not too far off, either — he’s like a bobble head come to life.
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I won’t say you have to be mentally challenged to get 13 traffic citations in one year, but you are at least dumb as shit.
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If I were Cam’s father, and KNEW there was no truth to my role in Camgate, and not a penny received by my son or church from AU boosters, it would not matter if the NCAA, SEC, AU, or the FBI wanted me to remain quiet. Nor would any attorney be able to convince me to let my son twist and hang in the public winds for weeks/months. Something is definitely dirty here: either money was exchanged, or a father is abusing his child.
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Money changed hands. You can count on it. Sooner or later the truth will come out–after all the TV and bowl money has been paid out. That’s what this whitewash is really all about. $$$$.
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The FBI would simply tell him not to talk about whatever he has discussed with them about their case, assuming he’s discussed anything at all. It is obviously Auburn officials keeping him from the press entirely.
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This is nothing different from earlier this year when the NCAA wouldn’t let us talk about AJ. Granted, there is much more going on here, but at a minimum there’s an NCAA investigation going on (which is why they suggested that Auburn hold Cam out), and they don’t want you talking.
Given the stakes, and how Auburn has already gone “all in”, I can see why they’re not talking.
As for the old man, his most telling statement was when someone asked him if he had asked for money and he said “no comment”.
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Maybe I missed something, but I don’t think it was the NCAA that dropped the cone of silence on Georgia about Green. I think that was self-imposed, on the advise of the lawyers.
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Well, there are always lawyers involved, so that may have been the trigger.
I remember Richt saying ” ‘they’ asked us not to say anything about AJ”. I guess I assumed “they” were the NCAA, but it could just have easily been the lawyers.
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Found it. It was indeed the NCAA that requested silence in the AJ Green case.
“The NCAA has requested that UGA officials, coaches, and/or student-athletes decline further comment until the inquiry is completed.””
From this article from Schultz (so you know it’s true 😉 ).
http://blogs.ajc.com/jeff-schultz-blog/2010/07/21/georgia-joins-the-wrong-party-ncaa-seeks-inquiry/
I suspect the same thing is going on with Camgate.
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It’s one thing to decline comment and something else not to even appear before the media at all, Richt and Green both faced the press as I remember and said “no comment” when asked, Cam isn’t even going out there.
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They are afraid Cam will slip up and say the wrong thing (i.e. evidence that he was involved himself). If that happened the NCAA and the SEC would have their hands tied. He would have to be declared ineligible and Auburn would have to forfeit, at minimum, the UGA game and the Bama game. No SEC Championship game for Auburn. BCSNC game money out the window for the SEC. Another Bush-like hit against the integrity of NCAA football. Those that are supposed to be doing the policing (the university, the SEC and the NCAA) are instead actively cooperating in a cover-up because it is in their mutual self-interest to do so. Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.
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The SEC wants money too?
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If it were up to me, I would let Cameron talk about the USC game once it is over.
Anything else is out of bounds.
I doubt many would abide by those ground rules…
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Whether you like it or not you have to look at both sides. They have to protect themselves whether they are guilty or not. Not only has Auburn been hurt by this, but I would think MSU has been, too. Does either school have a price list based on position and recruiting rankings?
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The Feds can, and do, issue gag orders to people they are investigating, and these are violated at the peril of the investigatee. Whether this has any bearing on Awbun’s decision, nobody but Awbun and the Feds know. (and, presumably the NCAA).
Here’s something to ponder about a timeline: The Feds took more than five years to complete and adjudicate “Tennessee Waltz” which was directed at corrupt public officials in the obvious state.
There may, or very well may not be any continued federal interest in the Newton deal, but if there is, it will probably be quite a while before that becomes evident.
No matter what the SEC stance is on player availability to the media, if I were Newton’s football coach would I want this kid to be subject to the kind of questions that are going to come up in an interview no matter what the rules are?
I don’t think so. I agree with Awbun in this rare instance, there is nothing to be gained but more embarrassment to Newton, and, and no matter what his father may or may not have done, Newton has been the best player in the country this year and he deserves consideration for that.
The comments about Newton’s possible learning disabilities are an indication of where the questions might go, and frankly, I am offended by them.
The clamp down on Newton shows me at least somebody at Awbun or the SEC/ NCAA or (least likely–the Feds) understands the current media atmosphere.
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I agree. That Cam’s dad and likely Cam deserve to be questioned for their integrity there’s no reason to call the kid borderline retarded. And I don’t blame Auburn for keeping him away from the media as well. I am curious if it has anything to do with the FBI’s investigation though. Unfortunately, you’re also right that any information won’t be made public until the corruption case is done.
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Integrity has nothing to do with stupidity. The stupid part is that Mr. Limelight thinks he can get away with speeding, driving without a license, stealing, cheating, and extortion. Before the dust settles on this fiasco, someone is going to leak Newton’s grades from Blinn Jr. College and Auburn to the media, and we will get a glimpse of the lengths to which the Auburn Athletic Department went to keep him eligible. If Auburn didn’t think anyone would find out about their six-figure QB, they sure wouldn’t think twice about enhancing a few grades. I’d like to see Cam try to put his name on Ben Watson’s Wonderlic.
AA professors at UA . If you’re smart, you do your own work to begin with and don’t claim someone else’s as yours. When you get caught and are given another bite at the apple, you don’t purchase the work on the internet.
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“The stupid part is that Mr. Limelight thinks he can get away with speeding, driving without a license, stealing, cheating, and extortion. ”
To a degree he has gotten away with it. After all that………….
He is the starting qb at a Div I school, ranked number 1(?) in the nation with a shot at the SEC championship and the National Championship to boot with an opportunity to win the Heisman….and become a millionaire in 2011. Goodness! Not bad for a “deficient student athlete” I don’t think he got where he is at by himself. He is no closet genius but he has chosen his handlers well. Next time you hear of a “values-preaching” coach giving a “bad” kid a second or third chance after screwing up… remind yourself that some of these athletes are just now facing demands for self-discipline that you mastered in grammar school. On another note: at UGa there were 337 students who committed academic dishonesty in the 2009-2010 academic year.
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I’m saying he ACTS mildly retarded. I don’t think he IS mildly retarded. If he does, in fact, have a serious learning disabililty, it’s really nobody’s business and I feel bad for him. Hell, I already feel bad for him because of his father.
But after watching him, he looks less like someone who is talented and having fun (Tebow, Pollack, etc), and more like someone who’s expression says, “Whoa, look at all these bright LIGHTS!”. Multiple tickets, possible cheating at Florida…I’m beginning to think it’s not because he’s flaunting the system, but because he literally just doesn’t know any better.
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Oh, I think he knows exactly what’s going on. He didn’t get to this point in his life by a fluke did he?
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Not Forrest Gump?
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There is a fecal blizzard on the way folks….trust me it will l take a while but the FED’s are on to something big and AU is gonna get smoked .
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It is 100% false that Auburn isn’t behind the decision to not make Cam Newton available to the media. It’s laughable that Dennis Dodd actually believes that garbage, but it just goes to show how far he’s fallen as a reporter. It’s either Auburn athletics or Auburn’s lawyers, or most likely, both.
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What will be interesting is when Newton MUST face the media in New York next week when he wins the Heisman. Wonder how that plays out?
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I’m sure he will be “tutored” ….Auburn has too much “invested” in this kid not to.
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if i was guilty i wouldn’t want to be up there
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The SEC and NCAA have become ajoke, they are more fake than WWE, at least the WWE tells you upfront it is entertainment, It is so obvious how the SEC ensures an SEC team plays for the title, this week South Carolina will not get any calls and Auburn will get all the calls because the SEC has already staged this game and the winner just like the WWE… and by the way if Cam was on ateam that didnt have a shot at the title game he would have been declared inegible 4 weeks ago… SEC/NCAA=Rigged
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+1000 A man that gets it.
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+1,000,000. Maybe, just maybe, the rigging of SEC games so that a team from that conference always gets to play in the BCSNC game (and the SEC gets millions of dollars) is really what the FBI is investigating. One can only hope.
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