Can Marcus Mariota Bring Meaning Back to Being a Heisman Winner?
Marcus Mariota was a landslide winner of the Heisman Trophy last week, but can he make it mean what it once did both on and off the field?
The Heisman Trophy is supposed to be the most prestigious individual award in college football. It is what all players strive for, and has become iconic to fans who watch the game.
The Heisman Trust has a mission statement, the first part of which is associated with the trophy. If you’ve never read it, it’s really quite simple.
"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. The Heisman Trophy Trust ensures the continuation and integrity of this award."
Quite simply put, it means that the winner of the Heisman Memorial Trophy should exhibit excellence and integrity on and off the field.
Integrity. That’s the word that seems to become the sticking point and where some recent past winners are apparently lacking. What does integrity mean? Our friends at Merriam-Webster tell us this.
"Firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : incorruptibilityThe quality of being honest and fair"
So basically, if you win (or are in the running to win) the Heisman Trophy, you should have been not only the best player in all of college football, but you should be an example of morality, incorruptibility and honesty. And while there is nothing the Heisman Trust can do about the future on-field performance of winners, the off-field actions should be something that is always kept in mind and monitored.
Now, let’s be honest…for many years, winners of the Heisman went on to have successful if not superior careers in the NFL, with the occasional bust. But rarely did you hear of winners falling short on integrity or morality.
Has being a Heisman winner lost some meaning? In this writer’s opinion…absolutely. In fact, it’s close to becoming a curse.
If we go back 40 years to 1974 — and the only two-time winner of the Heisman, Ohio State’s Archie Griffin — and look at the list all the way through 1994, there are only three players who didn’t have what could be considered great NFL careers, and only one (O.J. Simpson) who became notorious for inappropriate behavior off the field.
But beginning in 1995, things began to take a serious dip in both categories.
From 1995 until last season there are already eight winners who were flat-out NFL busts, with Robert Griffin III and Johnny Manziel both looking questionable as to how well they will fare in their pro careers. The 2005 winner, Reggie Bush, voluntarily forfeited his Heisman Trophy in the wake of NCAA investigations of improper benefits at USC.
Then beginning in 2010, it seemed that the trophy became synonymous with scandals, poor choices, and immature and inappropriate behavior from such names as Cam Newton, Johnny Manziel and Jameis Winston.
I mean, NCAA investigations, stealing from grocery stores, yelling obscenities in public, having inappropriate pictures taken while engaged in underage drinking…not your ideal Heisman moments.
You can say what you want about “boys will be boys” and “he’s just a college kid” and every other excuse laid out there to dismiss the questionable morals or integrity of these players, but being even considered, less yet winning a trophy like the Heisman means that you are supposed to hold yourself to a higher standard.
In that task, the players mentioned above failed, either at the time they were playing and in the running for the award, or shortly afterward. If you think the afterward doesn’t matter, then you don’t get the true meaning of integrity. It’s not lived in a 2-3 year box…it’s a part of someone’s character.
Let’s face it. The Heisman Trophy — as meaningful as it once was — has taken it on the chin in more ways than one over the past couple of decades.
That brings us to this year’s winner, Marcus Mariota.
The Oregon quarterback, who has had an exemplary career in Eugene, cleaned house in the college football awards category, winning the Davey O’Brien Award for the nation’s best quarterback, and the Walter Camp and Maxwell Award’s, both awarded to the nation’s best football player.
Mariota graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor’s Degree in General Sciences, with an emphasis on human physiology – one of the goals he set for himself when he made the decision to come back after the 2013 season rather than opting to enter the NFL Draft.
Then Mariota did something that no player at Oregon had ever done…he won the Heisman Trophy, and he now has a chance to bring another first to Oregon — a national championship.
To date, there has nary been a whisper of scandal or inappropriateness surrounding Mariota. He does what all top-flight football players are supposed to do. He enters the field, does his job (and does it damn well), speaks to the press intelligently and honestly, and then goes on about his life outside of football.
His most notable transgression of any sort – a speeding ticking for doing 80 in a 55 mph zone.
The horror!!
There is no question that to date, Mariota has lived up to every single word of the Heisman mission statement both on and off the field. Whether or not his success as a quarterback will translate to the NFL is still years away in evaluating. I’d have a hard time betting against him though.
As for off the field…well, here’s the thing about integrity.
Nobody is perfect, and everyone stumbles or makes mistakes. But those who have real integrity do two things you rarely see from those who lack it – they admit their mistakes, and they learn from them and don’t repeat them. So will Marcus Mariota be a role model from this day moving forward? Again, I’d have a hard time betting against that, but I’m sure he’ll find living in a fish bowl will make it that much more difficult.
This year’s Heisman presentation show was probably one of the most anti-climactic and predictable one’s in recent memory for me. But when Mariota’s name was finally read, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. My first thought was, “It’s going to be weird not having to write about someone who doesn’t really deserve to be a Heisman winner.”
If you’re tired of reading and hearing about the misdeeds and horrible play of recent Heisman winners, then you’re not alone.
And for those of us who have grown weary of it, all indications are that Marcus Mariota will be able to bring a little meaning back to what a Heisman Trophy winner truly is. Even should he fail as a professional football player, if he remains true to himself and continues to be the person he’s revealed while a student-athlete at Oregon, he’s already won that battle.
Lift that curse, Marcus…lift that curse.