Heisman Trophy 's Meaning in the NFL

The Heisman Trophy is awarded to the most outstanding college football player and is the most prestigious award in the NCAA. Each of the 74 players who have been honored with the award deserves tremendous praise for their collegiate careers. However, what is even more impressive is when such success at the college level translates into success at the professional level. And in recent years, that just hasn’t happened. You can attribute that disconnect from NCAA to NFL stars to whatever you want—hype puts too much pressure on Heisman winners, NCAA football is played too differently than NFL football that it’s incredibly hard to be great at both, NCAA starlets get too accustomed to playing at the college level that they cannot transition to the NFL—whatever it is, especially in recent years, there is substantial evidence that a Heisman winner has a hard time having the same success he did in college as he did in the NFL.

Since Barry Sanders won the award in 1988, there have been 20 recipients of the Heisman Award. Fourteen went drafted in the top five rounds of the NFL Draft, including ten first-rounders. So there’s no question as to how NFL front offices look at Heisman winners—they like them, a lot. However, only four have had any measurable success in pro football, and two have yet to appear in an NFL game at all. Eddie George (1995), Charles Woodson (1997), Ricky Williams (1998), and Carson Palmer (2002) are the only players since 1988 to have both won the Heisman Trophy in college, and to have started at least 10 games in 2 or more seasons in the NFL. Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford, good luck.