Former Mississippi State QB John Bond released a statement through his attorney yesterday that sent a shockwave across Twitter and SEC message boards. For those of you that have been under a rock for the past 24 hours, John Bond stated that he was approached last summer by a former teammate and was told that it was going to take some cash to get Cameron Newton to come to Mississippi State. He immediately reported it to Mississippi State, and they in turn contacted the SEC.
This afternoon we got to hear from Bond himself through an interview conducted on the Buck and Kincade Show on WCNN in Atlanta. Although the interview was very brief, and it provided few answers, it did address rumors concerning the involvement of another high profile SEC coach that loves the colors orange and blue. John exited the interview by saying he was "going to go hide in the woods for the weekend".
Click here to here the interview for yourself.
Here's a partial transcript and if you'd like to know more, visit The Clarion Ledger for more information.
OPENING COMMENT
Yeah, it’s a shame. You try to do the right thing and you get bombed. But that’s all right. It’ll all work out.
On why the story broke Friday:
Now that I can’t tell you. All I know is ESPN was going to put the story out there, with or without me. They wanted to know what I had told the NCAA and that’s exactly what I told them. I don’t know why they decided to bring it out now. Like I said, I talked to the NCAA a couple several months ago.
On a former teammate approaching him about Newton:
Actually, there two people in between it but, basically, yes, that’s what happened.
On whether he’s ever been professionally associated with Kenny Rogers:
I hadn’t heard from him in 30 years.
More on Rogers:
I hadn’t heard from him, I guess, in 28 years or whenever the last time we played.
On rumors Florida coach Urban Meyer put him up to report allegations to MSU:
(Bond laughs) No, I did it myself. When I got a phone call from the guy, I went straight to our athletic director. Now, what happened to it and how it grew legs after that? I don’t know. I know we handled it right on our end and that was my first concern: Mississippi State and making sure…
We’ve got things going on over here at Mississippi State. We’ve got it going in the right direction. Coach (Dan) Mullen is doing a fantastic job, Scott Stricklin is doing a great job as the athletic director. We don’t need any bumps in the road and that’s what I was afraid was going to happen, so I tried to cut it off at the pass.