Cam Newton claims Dan Mullen, wife accused him of taking pay for play at Auburn

Former Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton claimed Dan Mullen and his wife accused the quarterback of taking pay for play at Auburn.

Newton joined Shannon Sharpe on Club Shay Shay for an in-depth conversation about his recruitment out of junior college. Following a short stint at Florida, Newton eventually returned to Division 1 at Auburn, winning a national championship.

However, there appear to be some hard feelings when Mullen tried getting Newton to Mississippi State back in 2010.

“If you really go back and you know the reports (there were) two sources that said that Cam Newton and his father took money to go to Auburn,” Newton said. “Those two sources were Dan Mullen and his wife Megan. mother. How do we get to that? I’ll tell you. The day I was going to commit to Auburn out of junior college, it was neck and neck. Mississippi State and Auburn. When I went to Auburn, as my mental was solely focused on success. I was trying to play catchup (at Florida) … When I went to Auburn, they mentioned that they will have 22 seniors coming back. 

“Mississippi State probably only had three to four. These are all different things as a 20 year old college player and a 16, 17 year old kid, you don’t think that that’s a big thing, but it really is. My whole determining factor was I wanted to go to a school that could get me to a BCS game.”

Newton surmised that going to Auburn was going to be the better situation considering the talent around him and he’d be the missing piece. But doing so, he had to break the news to Mullen about his decision.

Thus, Newton continued the story as to how he claimed the coach and his wife leaked info about pay to play.

“I had to call coach Mullen,” Newton said. “I remember having a conversation. It was extremely awkward. Because when I called them, he asked me, ‘how’s my quarterback doing?’ And I say, coach I just wanted to be a man and call you and Miss Megan that I’m going to Auburn … And he asked me this question, ‘but how Cam? You know I was gonna do right by you, we need you.’ I gave him this quote: It was just too good to be true …

“And I heard Miss Megan in the background: ‘did he commit?’ I was like no. And then that’s when I talked to her. I was like, Man, I just apologize. But this is a business decision that I’m sad and that it didn’t work. I had that conversation. I was 20 and I thought I was doing the right thing.” 

Cam Newton claims Dan Mullen accused him of pay for play

Now, Newton fast forwarded to the part of the story where Auburn actually played Mississippi State. The quarterback sought out Mullen after the game.

“So fast forward to the success going on at Auburn,” Newton said. “At the end of the game, I looked at him and I wanted to shake his hand and say ‘Coach, man, I appreciate you man. Thank you’. And it was a little iffy though … His wife was there. We spoke, condolences, man, good luck for the rest of the year … The report came two weeks after that and if you remember, it was two sources. It was Dan Mullen and his wife that created all this ruckus. Cam and his dad, they took money.

“Now fast forward to now what is becoming a big story, I remember after the game, we had another primetime game on Saturday night, we played South Carolina … It was another phone call by Coach Chizik … That ain’t a good call that you want to have. But I was in good standing.” 

Newton described the conversation he had with Gene Chizik and his parents altogether as the story broke. The former No. 1 pick said he and his parents laughed because taking $180,000 seemed ridiculous considering he “never saw “$1,000 before.”

Don’t forget, Newton played under Mullen when the latter was an assistant coach at Florida, when Newton was a Gator.

“I was having an out of body experience,” Newton said. “’I;m surprised myself with the measure of focus that I had to go through and still that’s what brought my family closer. Because even though I know, even though I knew, still to this day, nobody took money from them. That was just a grenade thrown into the crowd (from a) bitter person. He didn’t come to my school. So he had to have (taken)  some money to go to that school because we had already had a relationship. 

“But I was thinking to myself, you didn’t play me while I was at Florida. These are all things that I’m saying like, I’ve seen your true self right? I didn’t want to get burned twice.”