Marcus Adams, 22, and Robert Davis, 31, were arrested in early June and booked into East Baton Rouge Parish prison on charges of simple battery, aggravated assault with a firearm, illegal use of a weapon and carrying a firearm on school property.

Adams allegedly pointed a gun at LSU defensive end Sam Montgomery, who had been arguing and fighting with him on the apartment grounds at 2:30 a.m. June 5, according to LSU Police. Adams also allegedly pointed a gun at LSU quarterback Zach Mettenberger, who saw the fight and yelled at Adams to calm down, according to LSU Police.

Montgomery said he “pleaded for his life,” when the gun was on him, the LSU Police report said.

Several LSU football players have been interviewed about the incident in addition to Montgomery and Mettenberger, but none have been arrested. West Campus Apartments is the home of many football players and other LSU athletes.

East Baton Rouge Parish district attorney Hillar Moore III is expected to file charges against Adams and Davis soon as the case proceeds to the court process.

Source: Make that two fights involving LSU football players.

So, this being Monday morning and our interest in Charlie Rangel’s squirming just isn’t what it could be, we thought we’d explore this one a little.

The first thing we’ve got to remember here is that both our protagonists are dirty to the core. Auburn’s football program has been on probation as often as anybody; Arizona State and SMU tie at the top of the NCAA’s list of major infractions cases with eight apiece, but right behind those two villains is Auburn with seven – they’re tied with Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Wichita State and Wisconsin for third place. With the Cameron Newton debacle appearing as the cherry on top of a huge range of allegations surrounding head coach Gene Chizik and his staff’s recruiting practices, it looks like Major Infractions Cases No. 8 is rapidly coming down the pike.

Louisiana’s Democrat Party is similar in its conduct. Prior to the arrival of the state GOP as a viable contender for elective office in the 1980′s and 1990′s, scandal was a fact of life in state politics – enshrined, in fact, as an historical imperative. Whether it was the massive theft occurring in the aftermath of Huey Long’s demise, the ongoing graft and corruption of Leander Perez, the mobbed-up state of Orleans and Jefferson politics during Carlos Marcello’s long tenure as mafia kingfish, Edwin Edwards’ persistent gubernatorial sleaze or the uncanny record of the state’s insurance commissioners ending up in the slammer, it was a constant during the Democrats’ time as the dominant political party in the state that politicians would be nosing into the public trough and keeping federal prosecutors busy.

And of course it’s by no means a matter of history that the Louisiana Dems are crooked. We still await final resolution of the Dollar Bill Jefferson scandal, Aaron Broussard’s removal as Jefferson Parish President is still fresh in our collective minds and now there’s a Cam Newton scandal of its own brewing surrounding the Democrats’ participating in Calvin Fayard’s money-laundering operation to fund his daughter’s campaign for Lieutenant Governor.

The similarities surrounding that last part is what generated our discussion in the first place, because Auburn’s decision Saturday to disregard the NCAA’s recommendation not to play Newton amid his father’s admission to shopping him around to college recruiters for six-figure sums looks an awful lot like the kind of in-your-face defiance of the law the state’s Democrats have shown in refusing to file campaign reports for the two weeks prior to the Nov. 2 elections after it was disclosed that the elder Fayard had dropped $210,000 on the party within 24 hours of it spending virtually the same amount on a “media buy” on Caroline Fayard’s behalf.

It’s somewhat questionable whether dire consequences await the state party for what seems to be a flagrant violation of Louisiana campaign laws, but at Auburn it seems almost certain the ax will fall. It’s so bad that Auburn’s team motto this year has been “All In,” a loaded mantra if ever there was one since head coach Gene Chizik broke the glass on it this summer. On Saturday, as Chizik’s team cheap-shotted, clowned and brawled its way through one of the ugliest displays of gridiron disgrace since the Thug U. days at Miami, “All In” signs in the hands of Auburn fans were ubiquitous in Jordan-Hare Stadium.

The consequences which await Auburn are likely not dissimilar to those the Louisiana Democrat Party has brought on itself during decades of misrule – punishment by the governing authorities, and terrible consequences on game/election days to come. Our analogy might not quite yet be ripe, but it’s not hard to see what’s coming.

Besides, there are lots of parallels between the two.

Who could look at Pat Dye and not see Edwin Edwards? Dye was known as perhaps the worst cheater in all of college sports during his time as Auburn’s head coach, ultimately bringing the program low with the Eric Ramsey scandal – things were so bad that when Dye was banished and Terry Bowden took over the reins of the program Auburn managed an undefeated season while on NCAA probation and nevertheless suffered the ignominy of being ineligible for a bowl bid or the conference title. Compare that with Edwards, who has spent more than a decade in federal prison as a result of his final corrupt term as Louisiana’s governor despite a constant stream of sleaze over the course of two decades during his time.

And yet Auburn fans look upon Dye as the same kind of lovable scoundrel Louisiana Democrats still see Edwards. In fact, there are suggestions being made that when Edwards is released in the near future he be brought back into the fold as a valued advisor on how to resurrect the state party’s fortunes. Incidentally, after Auburn’s boosters disposed of Bowden and his successor Tommy Tuberville for their up-and-down on-field fortunes in attempting to run a program without buying players Dye was brought back into the inner circle when Chizik was hired as the head coach in December 2008.

Those Auburn boosters appear to have a similarity of sorts with the financiers of the Louisiana Democrat Party, by the way. The current state party chair, Buddy Leach, set a record in 2003 by spending $44 per vote he received in his campaign for governor, and his method of spending that cash – allegedly literally buying votes – is something he was accused of during his successful 1978 congressional campaign. You might think of Leach as a decent doppleganger for Bobby Lowder, the notorious Auburn athletic kingpin who was responsible for dumping Bowden and making Tuberville’s life hell. Or you could look at Leach as someone not unlike Jimmy Rane, the proprietor of the Yellawood building materials empire who currently seems to hold sway over the Plainsman football program. Then again, Rane’s Louisiana Democrat twin might be Calvin Fayard.

Caroline Fayard has to be Cam Newton, though. While Newton hasn’t lost a game at Auburn and the younger Fayard found herself soundly drummed by Jay Dardenne in the Nov. 2 Lt. Gov. election, Louisiana Democrats see her as their great hope to produce a viable statewide elected official the way Auburn’s fans are hoping to get a championship of sorts out of Newton. That Fayard appeared to get illicit campaign donations from her father through the state party in a manner not unlike the cash assumedly routed to Newton through his father’s agency only brightens the picture.

Of course, the state Democrats appear to have several Tubervilles on their hands – Buddy Roemer, Mike Foster, Billy Tauzin, John Kennedy, Scott Angelle, Simone Champagne, Walker Hines and maybe even John Alario are examples of Democrat politicians in the last few years who have had enough and, like Tuberville did to Auburn, told the party to stuff it on the way to becoming Republicans. Whether there’s a Bowden or not is a question; perhaps the best analogy to the diminutive coach would be former governor Kathleen Blanco, who didn’t appear to be as corrupt as most of her historical peers much like Bowden was. But just like Bowden was ultimately taken down by his sexual adventurism, Blanco’s incompetence in dealing with Katrina was her undoing. Neither were particularly effective or inspiring leaders.

If there’s a Dollar Bill analogy in Auburn, one would have to conclude it’s defensive tackle Nick Fairley. Fairley has dominated the line of scrimmage for Auburn the same way Jefferson was virtually unbeatable in his New Orleans congressional district, but just like Jefferson made a practice of operating shakedowns from Uptown to Georgetown, Fairley seems to have a penchant for dirty hits on opposing quarterbacks.

The analogy between Chizik and Charlie Melancon isn’t complete, as the consequences of Chizik’s having run a dirty program haven’t caught up to him in the vein Melancon’s campaign of 10 months’ worth of hooker discussions did on Nov. 2. Nor is there a ready-made Mary Landrieu analogy on the Auburn side, which is a shame – Landrieu’s Louisiana Purchase deal in exchange for her Obamacare vote and her history of riding Orleans Parish street money to close elections in 1996 and 2002 certainly fits within the theme of corrupt bargaining which brings our overall analogy to light.

Ultimately, though, what makes this an interesting comparison is that in the long run, if you’re running a disreputable operation you will eventually pay the price. Louisiana Democrats are suffering mightily for the corruption and incompetence of their misrule throughout the 20th century, and Auburn appears headed for an apocalypse and disgrace as a result of their current relapse into old-time sleaze.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE:

The problem Auburn has with Newton is that whether there was an Auburn booster involved in sprucing up his dad’s church or not, Newton’s eligibility is in question even if all that happened was someone – whether it was his father or Kenny Rogers – shaking people down on his behalf.

“The solicitation of cash or benefits by a prospective student-athlete or another individual on his or her behalf is not allowed under NCAA rules,” NCAA spokesperson Stacey Osburn told Yahoo! Sports on Thursday.

To boil this down, you can’t have an agent and be a college football player. Somebody who’s negotiating under-the-table payments to get you to sign with a school is an agent. Even if that somebody is your father. So Rogers, who had his lawyer with him when he went on the air on ESPN Radio in Dallas today and described a meeting in Starkville wherein Cecil Newton represented his son wouldn’t sign “for free this time” more or less sticks the dagger in if he’s not outright lying.

It doesn’t particularly put Rogers in the clear for all this to come out, by the way. Nor does it help anybody who plays in Auburn’s league, as apparently one of the things Rogers does for a living is help “troubled” college players who need to change schools find new homes. Like Jeremiah Masoli at Ole Miss, for example. Or Ryan Perrilloux at Jacksonville State. Rogers apparently had something to do with Bryce Brown at Tennessee and may have had a hand in Brown’s subsequent relocation to Kansas State, where he’s “paying his own way” as a transfer student.

The upshot of this is that if the NCAA, amid a burgeoning scandal, comes to you and “suggests” that you sit a player, you do it. And without Newton, who even with this scandal is the likely Heisman winner and is almost certainly the top pick in the draft next April, Auburn is a very, very mediocre team.

The kind of team, in fact, which will have a lot of trouble beating Georgia on Saturday and will really struggle to beat Alabama.

Playing this scenario out, an Auburn collapse would give LSU’s fortunate-son head coach Les Miles a chance to battle his way into the SEC Championship game with wins against Ole Miss in two weeks and Arkansas Nov. 27. And if LSU were to knock off the winner of this weekend’s South Carolina-Florida game in Atlanta, they will have beaten either five or six ranked teams – more than anyone else in contention for the national title. They’ll also be the SEC champion and probably No. 1 in the computer polls.

Which means Kenny Rogers and ESPN Radio could very well give Miles the opportunity to play his way into the national championship game.

How crazy is that?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Kenny Rogers, a former Mississippi State player and runner for Chicago sports agent Ian Greengross who was apparently involved in Cam Newton’s recruitment – it was Rogers who got word to John Bond that Newton would sign with Mississippi State for $180,000 – was on the radio in Dallas today, attorney in tow, to bolster the accusations against Newton.

Rogers told ESPN 103.3 in Dallas that, on Friday night, Nov. 27, 2009, the night before Ole Miss played Mississippi State, he and Cecil Newton sat inside the Hilton Garden Inn in Starkville, Miss., and discussed where Cam Newton would sign with two Mississippi State football coaches.

Cam Newton was on his official visit to Mississippi State that weekend.

Rogers said that Cecil Newton told the two Mississippi State coaches, whom he would not identify, that State would have to pay between $100,000 and $180,000 to get Cam Newton to sign with the Bulldogs.

Rogers went further with the accusations…

Rogers said Cecil Newton asked him, “What do you think is going to happen? Do you think it (the deal) is going to go through?”

Rogers said he told Newton, “I’ll call Bill Bell.”

Bell is a former teammate of Rogers at Mississippi State. Bell is the president of Bel-Mac Roofing in Santa Rosa, Fla.

Rogers said he left a message for Bell that Sunday. Why?

“If somebody’s asking for that kind of money, I don’t have that kind of money,” Rogers said. “I called somebody I was close to to see if he knew anybody.”

Rogers said that it was Bell who called another of their former Mississippi State teammates, John Bond, to tell him of Cecil Newton’s solicitation. Bond has said that, when he learned of the solicitation, he reported it to then-Mississippi State AD Greg Byrne.

Cecil Newton is Cam Newton’s father. He’s a minister who’s Atlanta church was falling down a year ago and is now up to code.

Auburn’s internal investigation apparently says they can’t find any phone records of anyone from Auburn talking with Rogers during the period of Cam’s recruitment, which doesn’t contradict Rogers’ statements. He says his involvement in the Newton situation was limited to the question of whether he might end up at Mississippi State. Rogers also said he has no knowledge of what Auburn was offering Newton.

UPDATE: More information is starting to surface on this, and the Auburn pucker factor is increasing. Turns out there are a couple of folks who were recruiting Newton out of Mississippi State who were told that Auburn was offering him too much money to turn down and that it would take “more than a scholarship” to get Newton to Starkville out of junior college.

This won’t end well. The question is whether it ends before this season is over. While it would be unusual for such an occurrence to take place, this situation is developing more rapidly than any we’ve seen.

ORIGINAL: The Cameron Newton thing is rapidly expanding into a full-blown scandal.

TMZ reports that the FBI is now involved in an investigation of allegations that an agent was shopping the Auburn quarterback around for somewhere between $180,000 and $200,000 to prospective universities when Newton was at Blinn Junior College last year.

The man feds want to speak with is John Bond — a former Mississippi State football star. Last week, Bond claimed people connected to Heisman front-runner Cam Newton contacted him back in 2009 and said it would take $180,000 to get Cam to commit to MSU. 

Newton eventually committed to Auburn University, where he’s now one of the top quarterbacks in the country. 

Bond’s attorney confirms to TMZ Sports that the FBI has requested a sit-down meeting with his client — and tells us the agent who contacted him said, “We are interested in whether young men are being shopped to colleges.”

Newton has denied any wrongdoing — and reps for Auburn have stated that Newton remains eligible to play and will start this weekend against Georgia.

Newton, who at this point seems like a shoo-in for the Heisman Trophy and will likely be the first pick in the NFL draft in April, has been the subject of widespread rumors and speculation since leaving Florida for Blinn two years ago. Newton found himself in trouble for stealing a laptop computer before leaving Florida – an offense which has not typically resulted in dismissal during Urban Meyer’s era in Gainesville. But the New York Times reports he was under investigation for academic fraud before leaving the Gator program.

Is it likely that the Newton rumors will come to a resolution before the end of the 2010 season? Probably not. But the scandal seems to be spinning out fairly quickly and might soon take on a life of its own. And with the FBI becoming involved, the odds of a break in the case are improving.

And in the event of a Newton eligibility crisis and Auburn forfeiture, LSU’s national championship prospects go from a long shot to quite good. Assuming, of course, that the Tigers don’t drop the ball from here until the end of the season.

History shows those who doubt Les Miles’ ability to inspire good fortune for himself are frequently proven wrong. Miles took a beating from across the spectrum of LSU fandom after his team’s loss to Auburn three weeks ago. What a turn of events it might be should that loss be wiped off the books courtesy of an NCAA scandal!

Hey, stranger things have happened. If a team can win a game thanks to a defense having 13 players on the field on the last play…

Courage.

Who’s Rouge Hebert?

Well, several years ago Emile Trosclair woke up one morning, looked out the back window of his ranch-house in Acadia Parish – and saw one of his oil wells engulfed in flames. Panicked, Trosclair picked up the phone and called the Houston offices of famed oil well firefighter Red Adair.

Adair answered the phone, said he could have a crew to Trosclair’s burning well in under two hours with state-of-the-art equipment and the fire put out for the lowly sum of $100,000.

“Man, me. A hunret t’ousand? Whoo, dat’s more den I got,” said Trosclair. “What ahm gonna do?”

“Sorry I can’t help,” said Adair. “I’ll tell you what, though. Down your way is a guy new to the business. His name is Rouge Hebert. He’s close by where you are, and I understand he works cheap.”

So Adair gave Trosclair the number, and the call was made to Hebert at his offices outside the little town of Erath. Hebert said he could be on the scene in under an hour and the fire put out for $5,000.

“Five t’ousand? Whooo,” Trosclair hooted. “I doan know if you any good, Rouge, but dat price is right. Come on down!”

A mere 30 minutes later, before Trosclair could make it to the road to open his front gate, a fire truck loaded with stoutly-built Cajuns came thundering down the road, executed a sharp turn and, wheels skidding, battered through the gate, sped down the dirt road on Trosclair’s property and plowed into the blazing well – the Cajuns jumping off the truck just before impact. Whereupon the crew immediately set to beating out the fire with brooms.

Trosclair, running as fast as his old legs could carry him to the scene, finally reached the action just as Hebert’s crew was finishing the last of the fire. Out of breath, he reached a man he figured to be Hebert – as the man was circulating among the crew, shaking hands and slapping backs.

“Hoooo, Lawd!” said Trosclair as he approached Hebert. “You mus’ be Rouge. Man, I ain’t never seen nothin’ like dis heah. Dat was de mos’ courageous, braves’, heroic t’ing I even heard of. Here’s a check for $5,000.”

“T’ank ya, sir,” Rouge, singed from head to toe, responded.

“Whatchoo gonna do wit’ all dat money, hah Rouge?” queried Trosclair.

“Well, de firs’ t’ing is, I gotta fix de brakes on mah truck.”

If Les Miles isn’t Rouge Hebert, I don’t know who is.

Click on the bad-ass image to donate!