Two quarterbacks

Cam Newton is going pro. Case Keenum is staying amateur. I've crossed the paths of both quarterbacks, indirectly with Newton, who has held my nephew at a team function my brother catered, directly and fairly often with Keenum, who quarterbacks my Alma mater and my wife's employer. I can't say I know him well, and I cannot say I know Newton at all.

But there is something about Newton that shines false, false as Hal Chase's charm. His announcement this week that he was turning pro after winning a meaningless exhibition game, er, national title, was no surprise. Newton has always seemed to me, even before the allegations of pay for play arose, to be the ultimate mercenary football player. Hotly recruited, he chose Florida then left when he realized Tebow was coming back and knowing he couldn't compete. He played at Blinn then, according to his own account, he allowed his father to pick Auburn for him. While none of that is endearing, it certainly doesn't make him the poster child for NCAA hypocrisy.

What bothers me is his preternatural smoothness in the face of all allegations. There was something about that smile that seemed so fake. It was a smile folks my age will remember on Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker in the 1980s as all was beginning to fall around them. It's a smile that seemed to say "you can't touch me. I did it, you know it and there is nothing you can do about it." (which isn't to say I think the NCAA treats its players with even a modicum of fairness). It was the smile of your daughter's suitor who says "I'll be sure and have her home by 11 because I'll be done by then."

I don't want to act as though Case Keenum is a saint. His public displays of piety are the type that have always grated on me, the more so because I know they are sincere. I know of instances in which he's acted less than perfect in dealing with some people. But I also know that no one was bidding for his services. Art Briles was the only coach in America who thought he could play at this level. I know that it was his dream to play college football, not to use it as stepping stone to something more lucrative.

Case isn't immune to the lures of the lucre. He's tested the waters to see where he would fall in the draft. If he had been advised he was a first round pick, there's a good chance he wouldn't have come back this year, much less next year. But there is a dignity surrounding Keenum's efforts to return, to finish what he started. I don't think he cares much for the records. He realizes that much of that is the system. I think he realizes that he's the second-best quarterback that UH has had since 2003. But that is what makes Case such a great role model and a great quarterback. He's not quarterbacking against Kevin Kolb, or Tim Tebow. He's quarterbacking against the defense in front of him.

He has a task to do and he knows damn well it can go bad. With a porous defense and the world's most delusional fan base, Houston has far bigger holes to fill than quarterback. Keenum could be great and they could still be a .500 team and the people posting with orgasmic joy on coogfans today will be calling him a choking dog. I don't know if Cam Newton could handle that (more on that in a moment) but I know that Case Keenum will be able to.

To me, the difference between the two quarterback was summed up before Newton's announcement that he was leaving the NCAA's that Keenum would not be. Newton did not have a good game Monday. Oregon hit him hard and hit him often. They determined they would not let him beat them with this feet and dared him to beat them with his arm. He could not do it. And that smile disappeared. His body seemed slumped every time he walked off the field. On the penultimate play, he should have scored. It was set up for the best player to make the best play. Instead, he got hit once then crumpled backwards unlike any other time I've seen him. I'm not sure anymore that he's a great prospect. I wouldn't take him in the first round. I think there is equal chance he'll be great or he'll be Vince Young.

I've seen Keenum fail in that situation too. Against Alabama, Oregon, Colorado State, ECU. I've seen him get his ass kicked against Air Force. Somehow he came out of those games with his dignity enhanced, rather than diminished. He did not slump off the field. He had not been beaten, he just ran out of time. I put Case's chances of success in the NFL with Newton's. But Case's chance of failure is nil. If he doesn't make a roster, he'll still be in the game coaching, at some level. And if he's carrying a clipboard, he'll still be learning, still be preparing, still be surviving, extending the play as he has done so often, just waiting for the slightest chance, then feathering a pass, a taking off to keep the drive going. Two quarterbacks. One, out of time on the college level, one getting that most precious gift back.

Good luck to them both.