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| Heisman Trophy |
Last night I sat down with a cold beer with high hopes that a Notre Dame football player would be inducted into what used to be one of the most exclusive clubs in college football. You see, Notre Dame has the more Heisman winners than any other university. In 1943, Angelo Bertelli became the first Fighting Irish player to win the award. He was followed by John Lujack in 1947, Leon Hart in 1949, John Lattner in 1953, Paul Hornung in 1956, John Huarte in 1964 and Tim Brown in 1987. The Heisman Trophy, an award that heralds the best player in college football. When you go to the Heisman web site, the first words you read are, "The Heisman Memorial Trophy annually recognizes the outstanding college
football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of
excellence with integrity. Winners epitomize great ability combined with
diligence, perseverance, and hard work." Words to play a sport by as well to live by. By receiving this award, a player is lifted into another realm, the world of greatness in the sport that he plays, college football. Other past winner include Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett, Bo Jackson and Barry Sanders, all who went on to have outstanding Hall of Fame NFL careers. The award should epitomize all that is good and pure in college football.
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| Manziel, Teo and Klein |
Yea, right! As I sat down with my cold one last night, I was first submitted to 52 minutes of ESPN's Heisman propaganda. The award takes about 2 minutes to give away, but ESPN uses one full hour to interview the 3 candidates, their families, past Heisman winners and to give their worthless opinions on how great each one of the nominees played throughout the season. Last night we had 3 very good college football players, Colin Klein (Kansas St.), Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M) and Manti Teo (Notre Dame). Of course I was pulling hard for Manti since I am a die hard Irish fan. This year, Teo won six major awards, The Dick Butkus for the top linebacker, Bronco Nagurski Award for the nations top defensive player, Vince Lombardi/Rotary Award for the best lineman / linebacker, The Bednarik for the top defensive player, The Walter Camp for player of the year and the Maxwell for the nations most outstanding player. He was the first defensive player to win the Maxwell since 1980, ending a string of 9 straight quarterbacks.
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| Manti Teo |
As I waited in anticipation of another Heisman coming into the Notre Dame fold, I thought how can Teo not win this award. He won six major awards while Johnny Manziel won the Davey O'Brien Trophy for the top quarterback and Colin Klein won the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm. It has to be a lock. I'm putting the house on this one. Then I realized that a pure defensive player has never won the Heisman. I remembered that it has become an award for the offensive player who can tally up the most stats usually against meatball teams who cannot defend their grandmothers. Hell, 10 out of the last 11 winners have been quarterbacks. Among these 10 QB winners were Chris "Wee Willie" Weinke, Eric "Itchy" Crouch, Jason "Who Is This" White, Matt "INT" Leinart, Troy Smith and Tim Tebow. Genuflect when you see or hear the name Tim Tebow. All of these players either never made it to the NFL or are total busts. However, they all tossed up huge statistics which earned them the Heisman.
Let's face it, the Heisman Trophy has become the joke of all of sports. It is a popularity contest with nothing but offensive stats determining the winner. Did Johnny Manziel throw up (and I did) big numbers. You bet. He completed 237 of 400 passes or 59.2% for 3419 yards and 24 touchdowns with only 8 interceptions. He also rushed 184 times for 1184 yards or 6.4 yards per carry and 19 touchdowns. He broke the beloved SEC record with 4600 total yards which was previously held by Cam "Shaft" Newton. He did this all as a freshman. Oh, by the way, a freshman has not won this award in it's 78 years of existence. These are very impressive stats and that is the single, misguided reason he won the Heisman. Johnny Manziel will be added to the list of recent Heisman winners who will fall into the abyss of obscurity. To the Heisman voters I say, "Shame on you"! Your inability to look past the statistics and to avoid looking deep into the heart of a true college football player who loves the game for what it is supposed to be is unforgivable.
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