THE 2009 HEISMAN TROPHY: The Fix Is In

In 1935, the Heisman Trophy was created by New York City's Downtown Athletic Club.   The award was first known as the DAC Trophy and it was awarded to the "best college football player east of the Mississippi River."

The club's athletic director, John Heisman, died in 1936 and the Trophy was renamed in his honor.  Other than the name, not much has changed.    

The Heisman people decided to include schools "west of the Mississippi" when shown proof that the United States, did, in fact, control those lands. 

The Heisman Committee even decided to divide the newly discovered lands into six regions.  These are the North East, Mid Atlantic, Mid West, South, South West, and Far West regions. 

The Heisman folks even selected six regional representatives to appoint voters in their states.  Each region has 145 media votes.  What their names are is anyone's guess.

Just a minute.  Did anyone give maps of the new lands to the Heisman people?  I guess not.

The last person able to include Ohio and west in the same sentence, without laughing, was John Adams.  Are you kidding me?

You don't have to be Daniel Boone to understand it takes at least three days to drive to Ohio from Los Angeles, but only a half a day from Ohio to Atlantic City.  Where does Mid West come from?

It may be time to upgrade school geography books.

Let's put the myth of geographical fairness to rest right now.  Where is the term Mid Pacific?  How about the American Mid East?  Don't people understand that California has a North West, Mid Pacific, South West and South?  Did the Heisman folks not think of the term Far East?  What, did they think it had already been taken and therefore couldn't be used? 

Apparently, the Heisman folks didn't get the map of the New World.  Other than USC, the Heisman has only made it west of the Pecos five times since 1935.  OK, I understand that it was created to make it an "east of the Mississippi River," award, but really.

If the aforementioned was all that was dubious about the Heisman, I wouldn't be taking my fourth and fifth Excedrin.  There are questions that neither John Adams, nor John Heisman can answer about this award.

"Best college football player" has absolutely nothing to do with the Heisman Trophy.  That's as false as a courtroom in the United States claiming it's there to "find the truth of the matter in question."

I'm old enough, experienced enough, and have enough common sense to know that neither of the above are the primary goals of the entities involved.

In the courtroom, it's a game between the defense, and the prosecutor, with the judge as the ref.  The jury is a Harris Poll.  That should keep some people from breaking the law.

The Heisman is a running back or quarterback's trophy.  Tell me I'm wrong.

No lineman has ever won the Heisman.  There have been two ends (1936 and 1949) to win the Heisman.  There were two wide receivers (1987 and 1991) who won the award.  The lone defensive back won the award in 1997.

There have been 42 running backs and 27 quarterbacks who have won the Heisman Trophy.    Since 2000, eight quarterbacks and one running back have won the Heisman.  I believe that's referred to as a modern day trend.

The three Heisman finalists last year were Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy and winner, Sam Bradford.  All three are quarterbacks.  All three return this season.  Tim Tebow won a Heisman Trophy two years ago. 

McCoy is the only one of the three without a Heisman Trophy.  What do you think? 

The vast and I do mean vast majority of voters are from Texas and east.  East.  You know, as in east toward the Mid West?  What?  Where's my Excedrin?

CA>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>TX>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Ohio>>>>>>NJ

Is Ohio really Mid West?  Really?  I'm not asking for Lewis and Clark to be on the Heisman committee, but just look at a map.

There's something else that's seldom discussed.  Most people in California come from somewhere else.  People in the east move to California for various reasons.  Few people are actually born, raised and die in California.

The reason Los Angeles doesn't have a NFL team is that the people don't support the idea.  Most of the citizens already have a favorite team and they're from outside of California.  

The same can be said of any other sporting team.  There are thousands, upon thousands of fans of the SEC, BIG-12, BIG-10 and other college conferences.

To say that any school in the Far, Far, Wild West has a voting block would be incorrect.   

So, do you think the top of the Heisman Finalist List will be McCoy, Tebow and Bradford?  Considering there's only 2,670 possible selections in the FBS, who else would it be?