Cleveland -- Bill Belichick often said, "I can only go by what I see." The former Browns and current Patriots coach meant he made decisions based only by game performance and practice conduct. He had no capacity for what a player was supposed to be. The player was what he saw. Proof was in the observable world. It is...
Cleveland -- Bill Belichick often said, "I can only go by what I see."
The former Browns and current Patriots coach meant he made decisions based only by game performance and practice conduct. He had no capacity for what a player was supposed to be. The player was what he saw. Proof was in the observable world.
It is a good way to approach this year's Heisman Trophy voting, too, which will be presented Saturday in New York.
Going by what I saw, quarterback Cameron Newton of Auburn, in a corrupt system, is both eligible and the best player -- the latter by far, the former by not so much.
My ballot read: 1. Newton; 2. Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, the son of former St. Ignatius star Oliver Luck; and 3. Oregon running back LaMichael James.
For consistent, game-changing impact in a 13-0 season in the rugged Southeastern Conference, the country's best league, Newton might be the most dominant skill-position player of all time.
The other names in that discussion are a "who's who" of college football legends -- quarterbacks Vince Young of Texas, Michael Vick of Virginia Tech and Roger Staubach of Navy, and running backs Tony Dorsett of Pitt, Earl Campbell of Texas, O.J. Simpson of USC and Herschel Walker of Georgia. I would add Pitt wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who is the best college receiver I ever saw.
Big (6-6, 250 pounds), fast, strong, elusive and accurate, Newton is the player the more publicized Terrelle Pryor at Ohio State was supposed to be. He sticks his nose in there to get extra yards and does not slow before contact, as Pryor does. Newton is much more accurate on the short pass.
The problem with Newton is his off-the-field scandals. Originally a Florida recruit, he was arrested there and charged with the theft and subsequent destruction of another student's laptop computer. Unhappy as a backup to Tim Tebow, he then transferred to a Texas junior college and finally signed with Auburn. His second recruitment became an ethical morass.
The NCAA concedes that his father, Cecil Newton, and a scouting service director tried to execute a play-for-pay scheme with Mississippi State. They allegedly asked for $180,000 for the younger Newton's signature on the dotted line.
An NCAA investigation concluded that Cameron Newton -- although his father announced his son's intention to leave Florida far and wide, indicating serious involvement in the younger Newton's career -- floated above this flesh peddling, unaware of wrong-doing. Auburn was also exonerated. Thus, Newton, after first being suspended by Auburn, was reinstated for the SEC Championship Game, in which he led the Tigers to a rout of South Carolina.
It is cynically likely that the NCAA spared Newton because the football powers have millions of dollars at stake in the bowl system and because the providers of much of that money, the television networks, did not want the nation's best player to be anywhere but on the field in early January.
The slope upon which the NCAA stands is slippery. Seemingly, a father can use his son as an ATM, so long as the son keeps his eyes closed and his prospects open. A handful of voters have announced their intention to snub Newton because of the scandal, one of them being former Plain Dealer OSU beat reporter Bruce Hooley, now working in radio in Columbus.
For my part, I note that Johnny Rodgers won the Heisman in the 1970s at Nebraska, despite his felony conviction for involvement in a gas station robbery. Troy Smith won the Heisman in 2006 at Ohio State, despite his suspension for the 2004 Alamo Bowl for taking $500 from a booster. Reggie Bush of USC returned his 2005 Heisman this year because he and his family took extravagantly illegal benefits from agents vying to represent him.
The task of cleaning up college sports recalls one of the classical myths. Among the 12 labors of Hercules was that of cleansing in one day the stables of King Augeas, whose immortal cattle had for all eternity been doing in the barns what well-fed livestock will do after eating. Hercules cleansed the stables by diverting two rivers, which would get him in trouble with the Environmental Protection Agency today.
It is not a Heisman voter's job to muck out the college football stable. The rivers around Manhattan are polluted enough as it is. The only criterion for the award is that a player be eligible. So Newton is my choice. If you're not going to give the Heisman to the best player, why give it at all?