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What about Fairley?
I can understand the Southeastern Conference taking a back seat right now on Auburn quarterback Cam Newton.
After all, no proof of anything illegal has been established.
Yeah, I know, where there's smoke there's fire.
And, boy, there's enough smoke to cover the southeastern United States.
And, by the way, that Mississippi State at Auburn game on Sept. 10, 2011 is going to be very interesting to put it mildly.
Anyway, my problem with the SEC does not concern Cam Newton.
It more concerns Auburn defensive tackle Nick Fairley.
Fairley was not reprimanded or suspended by the SEC for his cheap, dirty shot on Auburn quarterback Aaron Murray earlier this month.
SEC associate commissioner Charles Bloom said the conference office reviewed the tape of the Auburn-Georgia game and "we're handling this issue internally with the institution."
A good two steps after Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray released the ball in the third quarter of their game two weeks ago. A suspension would have meant Fairley would have missed the first half of Friday's Egg Bowl.
Fairley drove his helmet and his 298 pounds of force behind it into the middle of Murray's back.
If that was an isolated incident, I might let it go.
But how in the world Fairly was not reprimanded or not even penalized after picking up LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson and slamming him to the ground, forcing him facemask to slide up to his forehead is beyond me.
The league suspended South Carolina linebacker Rodney Paulk for the first half of the Vanderbilt game the week after Paulk put a helmet-to-helmet hit on Kentucky's Randall Cobb.
The SEC also suspended Mississippi State linebacker Chris Hughes for the entire Kentucky game the week after Hughes was called for a flagrant hit on UAB's Frantrell Forrest.
Forrest was a good 40 yards away from the play when Hughes charged from behind and leveled him.
Georgia center Ben Jones was suspended for the first half at Colorado after a downfield clip at Mississippi State. That disciplinary action was presented as a joint decision by Georgia coach Mark Richt and SEC commissioner Mike Slive.
Two other Auburn defensive linemen, Michael Goggans and Mike Blanc, were forced to sit out the first half at Alabama by NCAA rule because of the foolish punches they threw late in the Georgia game.
This was after Georgia tried to retaliate against Fairly by running right at him and piling on.
Auburn coach Gene Chizik said he was embarrassed by the actions of his players who threw punches.
For real, Gene? Those are the only actions you are embarrassed by this year?
If I was a betting man (first of all I would be broke) I would put the house on Fairley getting a personal foul penalty against Alabama Saturday and getting into at least one tussle against a Tide player.
I would also bet on Cam Newton being found guilty of having his hand in the pot. He may be a three-time all-Pro by the time that comes out, but it will happen. Something tells me it will be sooner than that thanks to Mississippi State officials pushing the investigation.
Auburn fans were in a tizzy when Chizik was hired from Iowa State after not winning there. Chizik won them over with two solid recruiting classes and a dream season this year.
But at what cost? Apparently at no cost to the SEC. |
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