Sam Bradford’s road much tougher than Archie Griffin’s
DISCLAIMER: I’m not sure how ashamed of this I should be.
I had never seen Archie Griffin run the football.
A quick YouTube search made me feel a little better; there are hardly any highlights of the Ohio State legend. The only decent one I found is 24 seconds long and only had a pair of runs, followed by a clip from a teary acceptance speech that had way more emotion than any Heisman presentation I’d ever seen.
A forgettable NFL career (2800+ yards, 7 TDs in just 4 seasons) reduced Griffin to an easy trivia question’s answer.
Who’s the only two-time Heisman winner? I hope I don’t have to answer that.
Ask someone who the greatest running back in college football history was and the answer is more likely to be Bo Jackson, Herschel Walker or Barry Sanders. Griffin gets a few votes, but even in Columbus, misguided, nearsighted Buckeye fans might side with Eddie George.
When Griffin won his second Heisman, only one of the top 10 finalists returned, Oklahoma’s Joe Washington, but he did it with a huge handicap. Sports on television in 1975 weren’t what they were today, but as if winning the Heisman weren’t hard enough, try doing it without having a game on television.
The Sooners’ NCAA punishment landed Washington fifth in the 1975 Heisman voting. Others receiving votes?
Chuck Muncie, Ricky Bell, Jimmy DuBose. John Sciarra, Gordon Bell, and Gene Swick. Who?
Okay, I left off Oklahoma’s Lee Roy Selmon and Tony Dorsett, but defensive linemen don’t win Heismans and Dorsett was only a junior on a four-loss team in 1975. The Buckeyes were undefeated when the votes were cast.
This season, Sam Bradford will fight off a historic field for his second Heisman. Most notably, 2009 is the first time:
a) The top 3 Heisman vote-getters return, and
b) Two Heisman Trophy winners return in the same season.
More than anything else, that’s what’s hindering Sam Bradford’s Heisman encore. Forget about new receivers and a new offensive line, Bradford’s place in what should be a heated three-man race all year should be the main concerns for OU fans’ preoccupied with Bradford’s Heisman chances.
Beating out a half-man, half-rhino and a Texas-bred QB who also spends his time swimming 300 yards across lakes to save dying fans of his team is no gimme putt.
Of the 11 Heisman winners who have returned for another season, none have faced a field as difficult as the one Bradford will match up against every Saturday night on SportsCenter and Sunday morning in the box score. Neither McCoy or Tebow have any major factors (i.e., another Heisman contender on their team, massive exodus of starters) putting a serious dent in their Heisman chances.
The lack of established stars allowed Griffin, a very good, but far from divine player, to make history.
If Bradford wanted to do the same, he should have been born about a decade earlier and taken on the bland trio of Ron Dayne, Chris Weinke, and Eric Crouch.
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[...] Of course, as I blogged about at length last week, the only two-time winner is a running back. [...]