Dear sirs,
Please give the Heisman race some drama: An open letter to Deshaun Watson, Baker Mayfield, and Jake Browning
Lamar Jackson’s coronation has long felt like a certainty. Young men, you have one last chance to give him some actual competition.
Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
I hope this letter finds you well. I trust you are happy, if not 100-percent healthy at the end of a long and hard-fought campaign. You have served your institutions well, and your families should be very proud. I write to you today to implore you to eek out one last incredible performance, in order to inject drama into the proceedings next week.
The three of you could receive invites to the Heisman Trophy ceremony next Saturday night. But while the proceedings will indeed be formal, the evening doesn’t have to be mere formality. Should you be invited, you will share the stage with Louisville’s Lamar Jackson, the likely winner. But there is one last chance for you to upstage the night.
Heisman voters can be fickle as a monolith, and regional voting blocs can swing the tally for one player over another. Mr. Jackson has done many things this season, and he’s done them very well, but one thing he has not done is have a HEISMAN MOMENT. In a long-lost article of the Magna Carta, it is written that in order to win the Heisman Trophy, one must have such a MOMENT.
And Mr. Jackson has been stellar this year, but he has not closed the season with his best foot forward ...
This publication didn’t have anything better to do, so we dubbed Mr. Jackson’s Virginia performance as such a moment (ignore the author byline).
But with hindsight being 20-20, I disagree with this assessment. Mr. Jackson’s team will not win a national championship this season; it also will not win a conference championship. Those are no longer things you have to do in order to win the award, but Mr. Jackson’s lack of marquee staging affords the three of you a unique opportunity.
“The Heisman odds are currently off the board, as the odds are astronomical in favor for Lamar Jackson,” Bovada wrote to us earlier this week, even after Jackson’s team lost its second game in a row. “The oddsmakers are currently in discussions on if they’ll be re-opened.”
Gentlemen, force them open.
I have the audacity of hope incarnate in believing that this Heisman race can swing a different way.
But one of you fine young men must deliver your magnum opus upon the gridiron this weekend.
Mr. Browning: perhaps you are our greatest hope for an interesting Heisman vote. I understand your personality is that of reserve and calm. But if the West is to be won Friday night, a stellar performance against Colorado could propel you to heights that might approach Jackson’s.
Mr. Watson: It’s simply elementary; you’ve been here before, on the doorstep of New York with the Heisman in your grasp. It can be yours now. Why, you even outdueled Mr. Jackson upon the sacred gridiron. Now you can do it in a tuxedo, but you must light up Virginia Tech on Saturday in order to even make it a remote possibility.
Mr. Mayfield: your culpability in this traveshamockery of American sport showed what gaudy numbers you can bring to the table.
You will get your final chance at glory in a game aptly called Bedlam. Perhaps you can bring some of it to the vote total next weekend. You’ll again need numbers like these in order to make Jackson’s victory feel less than assured
There are others within sight of Jackson, as his Heisman case sits precariously unfilled. But none has taken the opportunity to knock him off, and most won’t get the chance. It’s up to you three, who are actually playing games this weekend, to make his win seem like less than a 100 percent certainty.
In the interest of honesty, as you are each my dear confidants, I must admit that I would probably vote for Mr. Jackson if I had the opportunity to cast a ballot myself. But minds can change, and this Saturday, you’ll have the chance to change a few of them.
Warmest regards.
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