Cam Newton cites Mario Cristobal, bashes college football holdouts

Cam Newton channeled his inner Mario Cristobal when it came to college football holdouts. He agreed with the “get out” notion.

This was in light of Nico Iamaleava’s holdout at Tennessee, which ultimately led to a transfer to UCLA. If you play well, you will get paid.

College football, as much as it’s inching closer to the NFL, is still an entirely different entity when it comes to payments, holdouts, etc. That’s the way Newton sees it, like Cristobal.

“I heard one of the coaches (say), ‘if you want to play hold out, you can also play get out,’” Newton said on 4th and 1. “Because holding out ain’t it. And the reality of a lot of kids are getting paid this type of money without even proving anything, that’s what I don’t like … You 18 years old, five star, I don’t care, bro. Like, don’t come and tell me, if you look at my 7-on7, bro, I don’t care about stars. Can you perform? It’s too (much) entitlement that, and I always say we’re living in an entitled era … 

Nico, dog, listen, understand. Can you come back from this? Absolutely, but you must understand, learn from this, and I hope you will, and just make better decisions as a whole, not just as a person as a whole. This is family members, this is advisors, this is everything, bro. The main thing is becoming the best football player that you possibly can be. The money will come.”

Of course, this is not currently happening at Miami at the moment. Players might search for reupped NIL deals all the time but Iamaleava skipping practice as a holdout is something new inside the sport. And when speaking on the subject, Cristobal made it clear the Hurricanes will not be a part of any kind of holdout.

“We’re not going to do that at Miami,” Cristobal said. “And I say that without any hesitation. If anyone is thinking that — They can be the best player in the world. If they wanna play holdout, they might as well play get out. Don’t want to do that, don’t want Miami to become that. Too many guys have sweat, bled, and have laid on the line on that field to ever become that kind of program.”

Seeing Iamaleava leave via the NCAA transfer portal does not appear surprising to Cristobal. What he would be cautious of is a school ponying up to the demands of players who are willing to hold out for money. Once the process works for one person, everybody will be attempting the same thing.

“I think you stay real and true to the program,” Cristobal said. “Make the decisions that are best for the program… Everybody is in the portal and the portal is always open. It’s always open and everybody’s in it. It’s all about what you’re willing to accept and draw the line in your program. Once you allow that to happen and agree to it, prepare for a line of 80 guys to do the same thing.”

Griffin McVeigh contributed to this report