A Different Kind of Standard

[Saniflush]

In November 1995, the morning before I was supposed to cover Troy playing Georgia Southern in the Division I-AA playoffs, I had a wreck, was rightly charged with driving under the influence and taken to the Montgomery City Jail.
Phillip Marshall, Senior Editor, AuburnUndercover.com

I was locked in the drunk tank, a cold, dank place. It was, without a doubt, the most humiliating experience of my life. As I sat there, I thought about how I had let down my wife and my children. I had been driving a Huntsville Times company car, so I thought I would probably lose my job.

Later that day, when I went home looking for sympathy, I found none – not from my wife, not from my children. It took a long time and a lot of hard work to re-establish trust with them and with my employer.

Looking back, it was a blessing. It could have been a tragedy, but instead it changed my life for the better in so many ways. Since that day, alcohol has not been part of my life. I have never had a drink and gotten behind the wheel of a car and never will again.

I did something stupid, something illegal and something horrendously dangerous, putting my life and lives of others at risk. But, based on the standards by which some seem to want to judge Auburn quarterback Cam Newton, it happened, so I should not be trusted.

I don’t know the details of Newton and the computer incident that got him arrested. I know what he and others have told me, and I know that he has no criminal record at all. I don’t know what might have happened on a test or tests at the University of Florida, and I have no right under the law to know.

And, honestly, I don’t care.

What I know is I have been around this young man, usually several times a week, since last December. I have never known him to be anything other than polite, poised and classy.

What I know is that he volunteers his time to go work with elementary school students who look up to him as a hero.

What I know is that his teammates hold him in the highest regard, and those teammates aren’t easily fooled.

Whatever happened at Florida has no impact on Newton’s eligibility, no impact on Auburn. No one has offered even a scintilla of evidence that he did anything wrong during his recruitment. But, for whatever reason, a 22-year-old football player and college student has become a target for a reporter on a vendetta that defies explanation.

I can’t tell you for sure that Urban Meyer has anything to do with the latest salvo thrown by Thayer Evans of FoxSports.com. I can tell you that whoever leaked information flagrantly violated privacy laws. Since Evans seems to be on a crusade, maybe he should expose that person.

Because of privacy laws, the story can’t be verified. That ESPN began late Monday night treating it as a big story, scrolling it across the screen on their network, is as disgusting as the fact it was written in the first place. ESPN has now been reduced to pumping a story that no one can possibly show is true.

Why was the latest story written? It has nothing to do with Auburn or the NCAA. The only reason could be to try to hurt Cam Newton, who has not spoken in anything other than glowing terms about the University of Florida.

I suspect he’ll keep talking that way, though on the inside, you have to believe the anger is boiling ever hotter. I wouldn’t want to try to defend Newton under the best of circumstances. I really wouldn’t want to try to defend him playing angry.

Will all this hurt his bid for the Heisman Trophy? I don’t think so, but some will celebrate if it does, proclaiming that he got what he deserved.

But those who are slinging mud, starting with a reporter with no conscience, might want to step back and look at who it really is that’s getting dirty.

[AUTiger1]

Marshall has been and is spot on in all this.  Good read.