Brewhouse Bias – The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award

An article by scottysbrewhouse    2 Comments

Also known as “The Heisman,” sure seems to be another piece of media hype we could do without. Much like pre-season college rankings and their meaningless banter that gets debated prior to the start of every football season, so is the unimportance of an award where schools actually campaign, market and advertise for their player to win. Forget the fact that it is rarely given to any position outside of QB or RB, and for that matter, almost always has to be a team that is in contention for the BCS title, or at least a top 10 team in the rankings. Did you hear me correctly? Marketing and advertising by schools for their nominated prospect to win the award?

I’m sorry, I guess I just thought it should be awarded to the “most outstanding player in collegiate football,” since that’s what the nomination form says. Maybe they should change the copy to read, “the most insignificant, telltale award of an unsuccessful NFL career.” I mean, only 8 players since 1935 that have won the award have been accepted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And, don’t try to tell me the jury is still out for Carson Palmer or Matt Leinart. For every Barry Sanders you bring to the table, I can raise you one: Wuerffel, Crouch and Toretta. Bust. Bust. Bust.

I could bring up the ever-growing, ever-going East coast vs. West coast bias that exists; but, that controversy is woven throughout sports, not just for this award. Sorry Cali, you have great players and great teams – we just have to be at work at 8 am and can’t stay up until 1 am to watch you finish your games.

I’m not here to petition for the smaller, II A schools to get more representation. I’m not here to petition for the safety’s, corner’s, linebackers and “the other side of the ball” to have more of a chance at winning the award. Mostly, I’m just here to call out the insignificance of it and how we all as ESPN-fed cattle, herd around our televisions in early December to see what QB is going to win the award and eventually go on to derail some NFL franchise.