When you begin a career as a sports writer, nobody tells you that you’ll spend a fair amount of time at police stations, and in court houses, and that you’ll become proficient in filing Freedom of Information Act requests.

But you do.

You don’t view yourself as a judge. Nor a member of the jury. Nor are sports journalists here to police the athletes, teams, leagues and sport.

But I love what the Football Writer’s Association of America did on Saturday.

The role of good journalism is to cast sunshine in dark areas. To tell the truth. To serve citizens. And monitor those in position of power while also providing a dependable and independent forum for public criticism and conscience.

On Saturday,

. But it was what happened a few hours earlier that I will never forget.

As they do each season, a panel of 12 FWAA members voted on the annual All-American team. The vote wasn’t announced in a swanky ceremony at the Best Buy Theater in Times Square and with an hour of live television surrounding it. But that panel did something remarkable.

It left Newton off the team.

Skunked him.

Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore will get to tell his children someday that he, not Newton, was the All-American quarterback of the 2010 season. Moore didn’t share the honor. He didn’t get it retroactively. He was voted the first-team quarterback by a panel of writers who have been watching all season.

That panel did the right thing.

Newton led the Southeastern Conference with 1,409 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns. He threw for 2,589 yards and 28 touchdown passes. He’s going to have a wonderful career in professional football, and if you’re an Auburn fan, you’re thrilled to have him on your side.

The NCAA ruled that Newton’s father attempted to negotiate a play-for-pay scheme that would have sent his son to Mississippi State. The NCAA has determined, so far, that there’s no evidence that Newton or Auburn knew about his father’s dealings. And while this announcement was greeted with snickers and head shakes by college coaches around the country, the star football player skated free.

I’ve heard Heisman voters all week explain that they don’t view their obligation here to do much more than to cast a vote for the best player in the country. It’s the same logic that gave Reggie Bush the award in 2005.

The NCAA, the Heisman voters rationalize, tells the world who is eligible and who is not. And even though previous winners such as Pat Sullivan (1971, Auburn) say strong things such as, “The Heisman winner must always carry himself with honor,” the Heisman trust lost a fair bit with me on Saturday.

Newton’s character questions aren’t limited to the pay-for-play scheme. Even if you accept that he was unaware of the requests others made for him, there are other red flags here.

There was also an arrest while he was at the University of Florida on felony charges of burglary, larceny and obstruction of justice after a stolen laptop was found in his possession. Those charges were dropped because Newton completed a court-approved pretrial diversion program.

Newton also had three difference instances of academic cheating while attending the University of Florida, according to a Fox Sports and other published reports. He reportedly faced potential expulsion from the university when he decided to transfer in 2008.

Even if the NCAA is not willing to make a stand, even if the majority of Heisman voters shrugged and said, “It’s not my job to judge,” even as Newton smiled as he received the award, that panel of FWAA voters made a wonderful statement on Saturday.

Character matters. Integrity matters. Ethics matter.

It all matters.

We live in a society that is all too eager to draw the blinds, and look away, when they see something wrong. We pass responsibility like it’s a bowl of stuffing at the table. And we sit quietly too often when we should be asking questions, and raising expectations.

The NCAA opened a terrible box of troubles late this season by essentially announcing that as long as an athlete can’t be proven to have known that his father was shopping him around, the kid is in the clear. And so none of us should be surprised when this plausible deniability syndrome becomes all the rage this recruiting season.

The instructions for the Heisman Memorial Trophy includes, "the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity."

Too many Heisman voters ignored that final word.

Truth is, as a sports journalist I do spend too much time in courthouses and police stations. And as a columnist there are numerous occasions in which I have to decide whether it's my role to offer public criticism. I never mistake that as being a judge, or a jury, or the police. Those are tougher jobs than mine. But ultimately, each of us owns a tiny piece of our society. And if there's something wrong, we should all be willing to say so.

Newton is a sensational athlete. But while he's piled up the statistics, he has integrity issues, and legal issues, and academic issues. The hope here is that the troubles of the last few months for Newton will be a wake-up call, but the cynic in me knows that as long as he’s recognized as the greatest, and slapped on the back, he’ll snooze straight through to the NFL Draft.

Whether you believe that Newton should be recognized as the greatest player in the country shouldn’t simply be left for the NCAA to decide via eligibility --- and for the rest of us to swallow whole. We shouldn't be so willing to overlook character issues because an athlete is skilled.

I love what the FWAA did on Saturday. Because it voted with a conscience.

We should all listen to the voice from within.

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