Cam Newton Still Deserves The Heisman Trophy As College Football's Best Player

With all of the controversy swirling around Cam Newton, you might think that it would have affected his play on the field. However, as always in this splendid season for him and his Auburn Tigers, the Heisman Trophy candidate and junior quarterback, Newton has been the most outstanding player on the field for the best college football team in America.

Much has been written about whether Newton and/or his father, Cecil, a minister, solicited money for him to sign scholarship papers to attend Mississippi State. No one can dispute there's a lot of smoke involved here.

However, the old adage about fire always being present with smoke may not apply here. Sometimes smoke merely covers the truth and prevents it from being seen clearly.

In any case, the results of the last few weeks' games clearly show that Auburn is America's best team on the gridiron. They had a huge comeback victory over their arch-rival, the Alabama Crimson Tide, and need only beat the South Carolina Gamecocks in the SEC Championship Game for a showdown with the Oregon Ducks in the BCS National Championship Game.

Moreover, Newton, who may or may not have solicited money for his services or had it done for him indirectly, is without a doubt the nation's best college football player. That certainly qualifies him for the Heisman Trophy, especially in a country where someone is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty.

Let's assume the worst and that Newton asked for money from Auburn and was paid by an Auburn booster to sign with the War Eagles. If he did so, he broke no law, unless he didn't pay taxes on the income. Obviously, he broke an NCAA rule, however, if that actually happened.

On the other hand, if Newton's Dad was soliciting money and was paid for his son's services, while the Dad committed an NCAA violation, is the son to be held to account for his Dad's actions, which might have been without the son's knowledge? That appears to be the crux of the matter.

Maybe none of this is true. Maybe we'll never know, since the churches Cecil Newton controls may have taken the cash indirectly from intermediaries who made "donations" to his churches. If so, how could such payments ever be definitively tied to Cameron's choice of where to go to school?

Big time universities have paid for players for years. Logan Young was convicted in Federal Court in Memphis and sentence to jail for buying local players for Alabama, and it was common knowledge he had been doing it for Bear Bryant and most all of his successors in Tuscaloosa. A book called "Bragging Rights" was written about it. Whether Bobby Lowder did the same at Auburn is, for now, unproven.

Here's again what we do know for sure:

1. Auburn has proven they are the best team in college football. They've done it on the field in the Southeastern Conference, which everyone acknowledges as the best in the sport.

2. Cam Newton is the undisputed leader of their team, perhaps the most versatile quarterback the sport has ever known, with a better combination of running and throwing skills than anyone the game has seen in a long time, if ever.

3. No one other than Cam has had a better year. No one has meant more to his team. No one has nearly singlehandedly put his team into position to go undefeated and win it all like he has.

Many Heisman Trophy winners have been scandalized. O.J. Simpson and Reggie Bush, both from one of the most prestigious schools in the nation, Southern Cal, come to mind.

Cam Newton deserves the Heisman. He is clearly the best college football player of 2010. He may have some flaws in his character but who among us doesn't?

Those that vote on the Heisman Trophy need to do the right thing and vote for the best player. All of the rest regarding his past, present, and future can be sorted out later.