The Heisman Trophy is easily the most coveted award in college sports. Indeed, it is so respected and revered among Football players that I suspect many of them would rather have a Heisman Trophy in their home than a Super Bowl ring on their finger.
The Heisman is awarded annually to:
… 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… Our goal … is for the Heisman Trophy to symbolize the fostering of a sense of community responsibility and service to our youth.
(Heisman Trust Mission Statement)
Notable recipients since it was first awarded in 1935 are O.J. Simpson of USC in 1968; Tony Dorsett of Pittsburg in 1976; Doug Flutie of Boston in 1984; Ricky Williams of Texas in 1998; and Reggie Bush of USC in 2005.
It is no accident that I began this list with O.J. Simpson. Because no recipient has done more to betray all of the (off-the-field) ideals the Heisman purportedly symbolizes than this incarcerated thief who got away with double murder.
Therefore, if any recipient should have been the first in history to forfeit his trophy for bringing the Heisman into disrepute, it should’ve been O.J.. But this was not so.
I’ve been in the vanguard of those calling for College Football players to be compensated commensurate with the revenues they generate for their respective colleges. And I’ve decried the scarlet-lettering of (poor) players who accept cash to help make ends meet.
I have always felt that it is tantamount to modern-day slavery for universities to recruit poor and all too often uneducated athletes just to play football and not compensate them for their services, especially considering they rarely get an education…
But this indentured servitude is made much worse by branding these poor players – who generate tens of millions – as cheaters for accepting a little cash on the side. Mind you, those offering the cash are often boosters just trying to make life easier for the players to enable them to perform better for their universities…
The hypocrisy inherent in this is beyond shameful.
(“Reggie Bush Forfeits Heisman Trophy,” The iPINIONS Journal, September 16, 2010)
This is why I was so dismayed when the NCAA forced Reggie Bush to forfeit his Heisman Trophy three years ago for violating his amateur status by accepting gifts (for himself and family members) from marketers and agents while he was at USC.
Now comes word that the NCAA is investigating this year’s winner, quarterback Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M, for similar violations of his amateur status:
An autograph broker came forward Tuesday and told ESPN that Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel was paid $7,500 for signing football helmets back in January while the Heisman Trophy winner was attending the Walter Camp Football Foundation event.
(New York Daily News, August 6, 2013)
Manziel (aka “Johnny Football”) distinguished himself by becoming the first freshman to win the Heisman. And, before this allegation, he seemed destined not only to become a two-time winner, but to lead his team to a BCS National Championship next year.
Unfortunately, if reports about him accepting payments are true, the NCAA must not only force him to forfeit his trophy, but suspend him for much, if not all, of his sophomore season as well.
I would/will of course be just as dismayed if/when this fate befalls Manziel as I was when it befell Bush. And therein lies the rub: because what happened to Bush now dictates what must happen to Manziel.
For if the NCAA fails to follow the precedent it set with Bush, it will be liable to charges of racial bias not seen in Football since the days when Blacks were systematically denied the opportunity to play quarterback.
No doubt you remember when Whites presumed that Blacks did not have the mental ability to play this pivotal position. Thankfully, this presumption has been so thoroughly debunked that no less a paper than the Wall Street Journal felt obliged to publish this scorecard in its December 10, 2010 edition:
In the six major conferences — the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10, and Southeastern — six black quarterbacks were named first or second-team all-conference. That’s half of the spots. (A seventh, Michigan’s Denard Robinson, was named Big Ten offensive player of the year.) This occurred even though Black quarterbacks held less than a third of the 65 starting quarterback positions.
This isn’t a one-year, one-off occurrence, either. A study of the winning percentages of Black quarterbacks at 40 major-conference schools since 1970 found them to cumulatively be 31 points higher than other quarterbacks at the same schools. With the exception of former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, the most dominant offensive players of the past two decades have arguably all been Black quarterbacks: Florida State’s Charlie Ward, Virginia Tech’s Michael Vick, Texas’s Vince Young, and Auburn’s Cam Newton.
(“Black Quarterbacks: Good Enough for NCAA, but Not NFL? September 12, 2012)
I commented more fully on this phenomenon in “Black Quarterbacks: Good Enough for NCAA, but Not NFL? The iPINIONS Journal, September 12, 2012. Ironically, what makes the White Manziel so dominant is that he plays quarterback more like Blacks (who can both pass and run) than like Whites (who can pass but can’t run to save their lives).
Related commentaries:
Reggie Bush…
Black quarterbacks…