Place an Ad Calendars Classified Forums Sports Weather

sptimes.com Text-only News sections Arts & Entertainment AP The Wire Business Citrus County Columnists Floridian Hernando County Hillsborough Letters Movies Neighborhood Times News Update North Pinellas North of Tampa Obituaries Opinion Pasco County South Pinellas Sports State Tampa Bay TV Times World & Nation  Find your local news section Weekly sections Brandon Times City Times Homes Outdoors Perspective Personal Tech Taste Travel Weekend Xpress Special Sections Arena football Buccaneers College football Devil Rays Lightning Police reports Schools Seniority Subscriber Services Subscribe Renew Help Advertise Place an ad In print Online Market Info Join Us Internships Scholarships Times Jobs Contact us

Stop looking for negatives

SHELTON E-mail: Click here Archive

By GARY SHELTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 17, 2000

By now, we know all the reasons that Chris Weinke should not, for any reason, win the Heisman Trophy.

The reasons are in all the papers. They're on the television. They're on the radio. Walk too slowly down the street, and someone will jump out of an alley and grab you by the lapels and shout, loudly, why Weinke should not be allowed anywhere near the Heisman.

He's old, for one thing. Old enough to be carbon-dated. Old enough to be Marilyn Monroe-dated. Lately, this has become a very big factor, as if Weinke were a 10th-grader playing with second-graders. Voters will look at you, very seriously, and they will talk about Weinke's age as if he is taking advantage of all these kids. Hey, Mr. Miagi didn't enter the karate tournament himself, did he? Certainly, someone this old should not be allowed to handle the Heisman, should he?

He's a former professional athlete, they will tell you. He isn't some acne-ridden kid still learning to shave. So what if he was a first baseman, and the sport that paid him was baseball, and the results weren't much to brag about. Clearly, this is the road to athletic success. Michael Jordan took some time off to play baseball, and you saw how good he was when he came back. Surely, a guy who has cashed checks shouldn't win an amateur award, should he?

He's the product of a system, they will shout. When all else fails, this is always the argument you use to discredit a player's numbers, because the truth is, yes, he plays in a system. Doesn't everyone? He plays on a team that throws the ball, that has great receivers, that lights up the scoreboard. You don't have to be great at FSU to have great numbers. Heck, you can be Thad.

By now, you have heard all of the reasons Weinke shouldn't win the award.

What you haven't heard is this:

Why in blue blazes should he care?

We are talking about the Heisman Trophy here. We are talking about the single most overtalked, overhyped, overrated award in sports. We are talking Gino Torretta and Andre Ware and Clint Frank. We are talking Gary Beban and Terry Baker and Rashaan Salaam. We are talking Victor Janowicz and John Lattner and Charles Woodson. Somewhere in there, I think Milli Vanilli won it, too.

That's the award we spend time talking about? In the name of Jay Berwanger (who won the first Heisman by galloping for 577 yards, the distance from your room all the way to the next room), why?

We don't seem to care all that much about the Cy Young, or the Lady Byng, or the defensive rookie of the year. We yawn at the Davey O'Brien and the Lou Groza and the Best Supporting Actor. As trophies go, we consider them nice little pieces of hardware, and it's nice if the local guy brings one home, but it isn't as if we can name whoever won it last year. Or any year, for that matter. (On the other hand, we in Florida have trouble naming the winners in a lot of votes, don't we?)

But for whatever reason, the Heisman seems to be different. It doesn't matter whether Larry Kelley puts his up for sale or O.J. Simpson uses his to pay off court costs. We care.

And the good news is this: Weinke could be the next Leslie Horvath!

Yippee.

All of this seems pertinent, of course, because the Heisman has come down to a two-horse race, starring Weinke as the bobtail nag and Oklahoma's Josh Heupel as the bay. Michael Vick (who should have won it last year) played his way out early. Drew Brees lost too many times at Purdue. Ladainian Tomlinson made the dreadful mistake of piling up his yardage at TCU instead of Notre Dame. Santana Moss is not a running back or quarterback, which means he has to save announcers from burning skyboxes to have a shot.

Here's a hunch. The most outstanding player in college is a cornerback at a school you've never heard of. Maybe he's a wide receiver on a running team, or a defensive tackle, or a tight end.

Such thoughts occur to me today, as I hold my Heisman ballot in my hand. This is quite a shock to me, because until this very moment, I was unaware I even had a Heisman vote. I thought they had all been given out to the third cousin of the CBS producer's sister-in-law.

So, here's the question. Should I vote for the quarterback of the moment, Heupel, or the quarterback of the ages, Weinke? Or should I try to slip in one more vote for Gore, just in case?

Let's consider the arguments against Weinke. No, the age shouldn't matter. That's just silly. If being older helped a man play quarterback then, heck, Bobby Bowden should suit up Weinke's dad. And being a pro? That should have made Weinke's skills wither, not blossom. As for the system, are you saying that you will forevermore not consider quarterbacks from passing schools?

No, there are no knocks on Weinke here. If you want to know how much he means to FSU, all you have to do is remember the last game in which he didn't start. (At Tennessee, they remember it quite often.)

Still, you have to like the pluck in this Heupel kid. His is the story we all love, the boy from nowhere who shows up and leads a team no one expected to the elite. That's going to work for him in the voting.

So what am I going to do? I'm going to wait. I'm going to see how Weinke does against Florida. I'm going to see how Heupel does in the Big 12 Championship Game. I'm going to see if either of them star in the national championship game.

Then, I'll vote. Yeah, I'll be a month late with my ballot.

Then again, I'm a Florida voter. What do you expect?

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright