The ‘Heistman,’ a divided national title, and the ongoing duels and conspiracies of 1997 College Football Conspiracies:
Peyton Manning’s Heisman Failure, Michigan’s Shared Title
“The Great Heisman Race of 1997” Trailer (0:30)Chris LowAndrea AdelsonDecember 8, 2023, 6 p.m. ETEditor’s note: This story was originally published last year.
Watch ESPN Films’ “The Great Heisman Race of 1997” following the 2023 Heisman Trophy ceremony.KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – On the back wall of Gus’ Good Times Deli, an iconic restaurant on the University of Tennessee campus, hangs an oversized banner that has been around for at least two decades and serves as a stark reminder to those around the college football. world .
And while the banner’s distinct Tennessee orange hue may have faded somewhat over time, the anger behind that sentiment has not.
Don’t blame us. We voted for Manning. Around here, the award for the best college football player isn’t called the Heisman Trophy. They call it, if they refer to it at all, the “Robber”.
The Vols faithful – from bulletin board posters to Hall of Fame coaches – remain angry and dismayed that favorite son Peyton Manning lost the 1997 Heisman to Michigan’s Charles Woodson, the first and only primarily defensive player to win the prize. But otherwise they are convinced of malicious intent.
They believe the national media mounted a campaign to promote Woodson at Manning’s expense.
To make their case, Tennessee supporters point out that Manning was completely shut out of 110 ballots, meaning 110 voters didn’t put the future No. 1 pick on the ballot. 1 in the draft and the NFL Hall of Famer in first, second or third place. (Woodson missed 88 ballots.) Woodson won the vote by 272 points, winning every region except the South.“
How can that happen, unless you’re trying to make sure one guy wins and the other doesn’t?” said former Tennessee offensive tackle Trey Teague, who slept with Manning in college and played nine seasons in the NFL.“
I haven’t paid attention [to the Heisman] or really cared since that night in New York City,” then-Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer told ESPN this fall. “There’s nothing against [Woodson] either.
He was a great player. But if you look back, there were all kinds of dynamics. ABC and ESPN didn’t have an SEC at the time.
They had the Big Ten with them.“The truth is that the best player in college football did not win the award that year, and no one in Tennessee has forgotten or will ever forget it.”
