Skip the Heisman Trophy and give Trevor Lawrence the Nobel Peace Prize

Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence keeps emerging as a leader and role model.

Has anyone squeezed more positivity out of most of a hellish, apocalypse-adjacent offseason than Trevor Lawrence? The Clemson quarterback and presumptive No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft?

As the world continues to reel from the COVID-19 pandemic and national wounds reopen in response to racial oppression and police brutality, the Tigers star has gone from strength to strength.

While he’s hardly the most important person in any of the causes he’s been a part of, Lawerence’s leadership in coronavirus relief and the opposing racism and police violence deserves a bigger award than simply a Heisman Trophy.

Is this man a signal-caller or a philosopher? At this rate, we have to think bigger than Heisman Trophy and national title for this man in 2020. For such vision, leadership, and passion beyond his years, give this man a look for the Nobel Peace Prize.

(It lands as a joke, yes, but considering some of the bums who have won that award in the past, the Nobel committee could stand to borrow some of Lawrence’s aura.)

Trevor Lawrence is showing his leadership away from Clemson football

In March, Lawrence made headlines when the NCAA took issue with his GoFundMe coronavirus relief drive for reasons no living being with human empathy could possibly understand. Ultimately, he won out and did right by countless people who needed help. This month, after playing peacemaker when head coach Dabo Swinney caught flak for wearing an ill-advised t-shirt that flew in the face of the Black Lives Matter movement, he helped lead his fellow students and players in a protest march on campus in support of racial justice.

The fact that Lawrence was such a sharp, plug-and-play football player right out of the gate as a true freshman surely obscured the fact that he was still a kid. Looking back two years later, the extent to which he’s honed his voice and leveraged his platform is remarkable — particularly in light of Swinney’s general density and heel-dragging when it comes to doing the right thing at a critical time and taking an unequivocal stand against racism.

At this rate, Lawrence’s influence has a chance to emanate far beyond football for years to come. With this in mind, the Heisman is perhaps too quaint of an award for him to aim for in 2020.

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