Cam Newton Deserved the Money His Dad Tried to Snag

Cam Newton's father was conspicuously absent when his son was presented with the Heisman Trophy Saturday. Why? Because the NCAA, "like the Mafia," doesn't actually keep college football clean, writes Buzz Bissinger on the Daily Beast: Rather, it finds "fall guys to protect the multimillion-dollar empire," then makes them "disappear." In Cam Newton's case, his father Cecil is that fall guy, accused of trying to snag a "pay-for-play" deal for his son at Mississippi State University (click here for the CliffsNotes version of the story).

The reality, Bissinger writes, is that when it comes to major college sports, "the school is the pimp, the player the high-priced whore—but without receiving anything close to market value for the spectacular conquests he routinely performs." Talented players make a mint for their schools and are barely rewarded for their efforts. "The family deserved a piece of action," he writes. "Call it an annuity, call it a financial derivative, call it a mortgage-backed security, but don’t buy into the treacle from the NCAA or lazy sportswriters that Cecil Newton somehow impugned the integrity of a game" that no longer has any.
(More Heisman Trophy stories.)