But the character flaws aren't personality-based or on-the-field-based. Did Reggie Bush's problems destroy the Saints locker-room? Of course not--it wasn't a distraction at all. The Saints won 11 games and the Bush saga was fodder for talk radio but it didn't affect anything on the field.
Newton didn't have to deal with adversity in his college career? Are you kidding me? He left Florida (whether because Tebow decided to come back or for academic issues is irrelevant), then rallied at Blinn (leading them to an NJCAA championship), coming back to Auburn where he lead the Tigers to a National Championship while NCAA investigations were swirling around him. He never hid from the media's questions, including going on the Jim Rome show and directly discussing the laptop incident without dodging the question at all. Vince Young went into his shell under far less concerning matters at Tennessee.
I agree that you have to worry about stuff in the guy's past; I'm not putting Newton at the top of my board and saying that there aren't issues of concern, but those issues have been investigated by people in the know, and those concerns don't seem to be leaking out despite every journalist covering the draft desperately wanting a piece of that story.
As I said (and you didn't respond to): Newton is from a stable, two-parent family and isn't going to be responsible for carrying the burden of multiple generations. He's not Mike Vick or Vince Young in that respect. He's not a guy who goes out and seeks the limelight. He's not doing media all over the place right now (seeking the limelight); he's getting his business done working out with teams and trying to get better as a quarterback.
Warren Moon saying that the criticism is racially based is uncalled for, although I think that the controversy surrounding the prospect outside of the NFL, which has little basis in what teams and scouts are actually saying, or his unquestioned excellence on the field, is confusing.
What if Newton fumbled in the National Championship game? Does that erase the perfect season that Auburn had had up to that point? The fact is that Newton took a risk-free play where he protected the ball and still gained 2 yards. It'd be a different question if he went flying over the offensive line and extended the ball outward. There were 51 seconds left on the clock at the time; Newton burned more time off the clock as the OL reset and the refs sorted out the play. I'm not saying that no one should be concerned about it, but after the game the USA Today live-blogger of the game described Newton as "essentially taking a knee" to set up the field goal. There's a lot of re-visionism going on as people who hate Cam Newton try to come up with more legitimate reasons than just general dislike.
Is Newton a Top 5 pick in this draft? I don't think so. Is Newton a first round pick in this draft? Of course. Is Newton a Top 15 pick in this draft? Probably.
But this isn't a kid from the ghetto who is going to spend all his money on weed and cars and six million dollar houses after he gets paid. That was the concern that pushed Darnell Dockett into the 3rd round. The money paid to a Top 10 pick is a concern with every player except maybe the ones who are independently wealthy anyway like #7 or Andrew Luck.
You made an explicit comparison to Cade McNown and Jimmy Clausen with Cam Newton as a "guy nobody trusts." The evidence at Auburn versus at UCLA and Notre Dame defies that comparison. What would make you think that Cam Newton is a guy that no one in the lockerroom would "trust"?
I did? What I said was the same guy who Moon is assailing as being racist made similarly "personal attack" comments about Clausen last year, and Clausen is white.
I compared Newton to Mayo, another kid who got in trouble in college and then decided to do a complete image makeover before the draft which got people calling him a phony.
I think you misunderstood the comma in the other sentence, it's to separate my comment about QBs nobody likes(McNown and Clausen) from QB's you might not be able to trust(Newton).
As for the Jim Rome stuff really? So Newton told the entire truth to Rome on the air? My recollection was he said he didn't steal the laptop and said he made a mistake throwing it out the window, he got nervous. Does anybody really believe he threw a laptop he purchased out a window because he got nervous when the police showed up? Isn't it a lot more plausible that he either stole it, or bought it knowing it was stolen and that's why he got nervous?
Just like the cheating thing. He reportedly turned in a paper someone else wrote, when that got questioned he replaced it with a paper he bought off the internet. When Rome tried to ask him about that the first time he wouldn't comment. Rome asked his dad about it and his dad said I wasn't there, I can't comment on it. So I don't really see where he faced stuff head on he just didn't really answer them. I admit I havent' seen the whole piece on Rome maybe he did address stuff later.
As to the from a 2 parent home stuff etc. Sure, doesn't that make his situation in some ways worse? Mayo's dad was in and out of jail for years with drug problems, he grew up poor I think we can understand why he started taking money in 8th grade. Doesn't excuse his behavior entirely but at least we can sort of guess at where it came from. Newton's dad is a pastor, he has both parents, he didn't grow up a Kardashian mind you but they weren't dirt poor. So cheating on tests, pay for play that's a character flaw that wasn't necessarily driven out of anything other than he felt he was "above the law.'
With Bush, he is not a QB. If Bush was the Qb of the Saints I would venture to say yes some of that stuff would have been a distraction.
What it comes down to is you're about to pay someone a lot of money when you draft them, you have to decide do we trust this kid. And part of that is believing in the kid, so when you think the kid is a phony, it's going to be tough to believe in him. Note I'm not saying all NFL teams think that, but some of them apparently do.
talent isn't everything, character counts and at QB it is more important. Maybe he'll be like Big Ben and it won't matter. Maybe he'll be a model citizen in the NFL and it won't matter, but that doesn't mean NFL teams aren't right now to be concerned about him.
Just to be clear I don't think he's the antichrist or something I just don't "feel sorry for him" I don't think he was a victim of circumstance. You want to feel sorry for a college athlete google Thomas Robinson of Kansas mens basketball. In one calendar year his grandfather dies, his grandmother dies, 5 days later his 43 year old mom dies, and he's the sole provider suddenly for a 9 year old sister. The NCAA that everyone hates actually allowed KU to pay for his funeral, relocate the sister to Lawrence and offered free legal counsel to help him deal with custody issues. He's expected to turn pro any day now because he desperately needs money, soph, great athlete not NBA ready but has no choice. Now THAT is a kid I hope is a lottery pick and makes a lot of money, he dealt with incredible adversity and I would actually understand if he had been accused of doing some of the things Newton has been accused of.
