When ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit asked University of Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota if he wanted to win the Heisman he said “Honestly um, and I mean this truthfully, no not really. You know, I’d much rather be named a Super Bowl Champion or introduced as a national champion, than the Heisman Trophy. If you can go out there and be introduced that way, you know, it says a lot more about your team than it does about yourself.”

Many assume that he was just another athlete who received some good media training and perhaps was not being as truthful as he claimed in that interview. Only Mariota knows the truth, but what I do know is that if Mariota did his homework about other Heisman Trophy winners, he would be wise to not want to win the award. Since he is about to start his redshirt junior year as a college graduate, it is a good bet that Marcus is as adept at doing his homework as he is at playing the game of football.

The facts show that only eight Heisman Trophy winners in history have ever been inducted into the National Football League Hall Of Fame. Of those eight inductees, only one was a quarterback, Roger Staubach, who won the award in 1963 and was inducted into the NFL HOF in 1985 – Eight years before Mariota was born.

Seventeen of the last twenty five Heisman Trophy winners have been quarterbacks and probably the two most distinguished players of the seventeen are Carson Palmer and Cam Newton. Of that group, only Palmer, Newton and Robert Griffin III have ever been invited to play in the pro bowl. Only Palmer and Ty Detmer have ever started a NFL play-off game during their NFL careers. Throwing seventeen darts at a board that randomly placed all the names of draft eligible quarterbacks during those same years would likely produce a more distinguished list of NFL quarterback careers.

So is there a Heisman Jinx as some proclaim? I don’t think so. More likely it is a combination of things. They claim that the Heisman Trophy is to be awarded to an individual designated as the outstanding college football player in the United States. I think more often than not, that is not the case. It tends to be awarded to the best player on one of the best teams annually, and hype often overshadows performance in the eyes of some voters. Regional biases also play a role in who wins the award. There is also a potential mental aspect of resting on your laurels and not continuing to improve after winning the award.

Of course great college players do not always translate into great professional players. Most college players do have aspirations of having a professional career though. Marcus Mariota already stated he would rather win a Super Bowl or a national championship, and the facts show he is more likely to do the former and no less likely to accomplish the latter if he does not win the Heisman.

Mariota may also simply realize, like all great players do, that it is a waste of time to worry about things beyond his control and spend his time working on things that are under his control like how hard he works.

When you focus on the process you are more likely to get all the results you want and often more.

Posted in The Mind Side Blog