Cam Newton has been adamant he - nor his family - ever took money when he played at Auburn. As recently as March, the former Heisman Trophy winner has tried to clear the air.
This week, in a conversation with Shannon Sharpe, the former NFL quarterback revealed who he believes was behind one of the biggest controversies in the state of Alabama’s college football history.
In 2010, the NCAA determined after a 13-month investigation that Cecil Newton and former Mississippi State player Kenny Rogers sought money in exchange for Cam Newton’s commitment to Mississippi State. Auburn was cleared of any wrongdoing.
In November of 2010, two sources who recruit for Mississippi State said that Cecil Newton and his son, Cam Newton, said in separate phone conversations that his college choice would be part of a pay-for-play plan while Newton was being recruited.
Those sources, according to Cam Newton were then-Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen and his wife, Megan.
“A grenade was thrown into the crowd to just have a bitter person (be like), ‘He didn’t come to my school, so he had to have taken some money.’”
Prior to the 2010 season, Newton was going to either commit to Auburn or Mississippi State out of Blinn College. “It was neck and neck,” he said. In the end, it was Auburn’s 22 seniors that won.
“I wanted to go to a school that could get me to a BCS game,” he explained.
That college success, Newton said, would result in the quarterback going top 10 in the NFL Draft the next season.
Mullen, who worked with Newton during the 2008 season at Florida, however, had stayed in touch with Newton.
“When I was about to commit to Auburn, one of the things that my father told me I had to do as a man, he said, ‘You got to call coach Mullen. And you have to tell him the decision you’re going to make. Be a man.’
“That’s how I was raised.”
So, he called Mullen.
“It was extremely awkward because when I called him, he said, ‘How’s my quarterback?’” Newton recalled. “I said, ‘Coach, I just wanted to be a man and call you and tell you and Ms. Megan that I am going to Auburn. I didn’t want you to hear it through the grapevine. I didn’t want you to hear it on ESPN.’ ...
Newton said Mullen responded with a question.
“But how Cam?” he asked. “I was going to do right by you. We need you.”
He said he told Mullen what was happening at Auburn was just too good to be true with the 22 seniors and a squad built to win now.
“They ready to win,” Newton said. “They just need me.”
He explained how he heard Mullen’s wife in the background asking if Newton committed.
“I apologized to her, saying it was a business decision, and that I was sad it didn’t work out.”
Fast forward to Newton’s year at Auburn.
After a 52-26 win over Arkansas State, the 1-0 Tigers met Mullen’s Bulldogs and beat then 17-14 on a Thursday night.
“At the end of the game, I wanted to shake his hand and say, ‘Appreciate you, man. Thank you.’”
But there was something different. Newton said it was something about Mullen’s body language. “It was iffy.”
Two weeks later, he said, was when he was first told about an investigation, citing two sources, that he and his family took money to play at Auburn.
Cam Newton was declared ineligible twice -- Nov. 10, 2010, and Nov. 30, 2010, -- but was reinstated in time for Auburn’s next game in each case. The NCAA determined Rogers tried to act as Newton’s athletic scholarship agent, but Newton was reinstated each time because he had no knowledge of any pay-for-play scheme.
Cecil Newton later said he “willfully fell on the sword” to keep his son eligible during Auburn’s undefeated 2010 BCS national-championship season.
Watch the full interview above.