? 21-year-old quarterback chosen in draft by Carolina Panthers
? College career dogged by rumours of academic cheating
It was hardly surprising after the turbulent year he has endured that Cam Newton would be greeted by both cheers and jeers when he was named as the NFL's first pick in Thursday's annual draft.
The 21-year-old quarterback, from Auburn University, may well have been the outstanding college player last year but he remains a controversial figure that has travelled a bumpy road to the top. His ability as a player, however, is unquestioned and it was no surprise that the Carolina Panthers opted for him as the No1 choice.
"It's a great responsibility and I'm willing to take that," Newton said about leading the Panthers offense, who finished an NFL worst 2-14 last season.
Newton started his college football career at Florida but after being found with a stolen laptop and dogged by rumours of academic cheating he transferred to a junior college. At Blinn College, he led the football team to a national junior college title before transferring back into big-time US college football at Auburn. That process led to another crisis for Newton.
In the midst of Auburn's brilliant 2010 campaign, it was revealed that Newton's father, Cecil Newton, who played two seasons for the Dallas Cowboys as a safety, had tried to solicit payments from another university for his son's services, in violation of strict amateur rules. Newton was briefly declared ineligible to play but reinstated after no evidence was found proving he had any knowledge of his father's activities.
In the end, the quarterback threw 30 touchdown passes and was intercepted only seven times. He was a runaway winner of the Heisman Trophy as the best player in Colle and showed his ability to overcome criticism when the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, announced at Radio City Hall on Thursday that he was the No1 pick.
"Man, am I happy. I'm glad for it to be over. There's been some sleepless nights," he said. "Oh, man, I'm relieved. What I really want to do, I can't do it. I just want to scream."
Newton was asked if his selection made all his travails worthwhile. He said: "To some degree it does. But at the same time, when I wake up in the morning, it's another goal or a task at hand that I need to tackle. You know, it's transforming an organisation that was worst and try to progress to be the first.
"I'm really not focused on endorsements and money. That's something that's going to take care of itself. The one thing I'm focused on, my No1 priority, is getting in this organisation and make steps as far as me becoming a better player."
He added: "I'm not trying to prove nothing to no one that I'm not trying to prove to myself, and I understand that I'm my biggest critic."
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