Athletes may be the most superstitious people on the planet. If a guy eats a steak the night before he throws 4 touchdown passes, you better believe every night before a game, steak is on his menu.
But it also works in reverse as well, the Madden Curse being a perfect example. Almost every player who has been on the cover of the Madden franchise has had something happen to him that season that usually turns out pretty bad.
The one curse that is not mentioned however, is the Curse of the Heisman. Don’t believe that it is real? Well, since 2000, 15 players have won the award (well 14 if you think Reggie Bush handing his back means he didn’t win the award). Of those 15 players, the jury is out on two of them (Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston), one of them has had a very good career (Carson Palmer) and the other 12 have been either unable to make it or total busts in the NFL (Jason White anyone?).
So the question is, does anyone really even want to win this award? Well, of course they do, and this year three more players will be in New York hoping their name will be the one called. Alabama RB Derrick Henry, Stanford RB Christian McCaffrey and Clemson QB Deshaun Watson will be the man of the hour. Not that it means anything, but a QB has won the award for the past 5 years, not sure if that means Watson should be smiling or miserable.
So who do I think will be the newest curse err I mean Heisman winner? This may be the closest vote since 2009 when Mark Ingram got 28 more points and only 5 more 1st place votes than runner up Stanford’s Toby Gerhart.
I guess it will be kind of revenge this year when McCaffrey (son of Giants WR Easy Ed McCaffrey) from Stanford beats Crimson Tide runner Harvey.
Why do I think McCaffrey is gonna take it? Well, he broke Barry Sanders record of all-purpose yards with 3,496 this year. He was only 139 yards short of Harvey’s rushing total, plus he had over 500 yards receiving and scored 13 times.
I don’t think you can say either player faced tougher competition as both the Pac-12 and SEC have tough schedules. But I firmly believe anytime you can break a record held by someone like Barry Sanders, it means you have had a pretty amazing season.
All apologies to Watson, who I think finishes a distant 3rd (although he had a great season too), I think the Cardinal will be celebrating a Heisman win, and McCaffrey will be the guy who everyone wonders when he turns pro, didn’t this guy used to be great in college?