A lot of thought goes into deciding who wins this prestigious trophy (pictured above). You figure in individual statistics, team leadership and team success are just some of what voters look for in the eventual winner. Some consider the Heisman as the MVP of College Football. I never have and never will think of it as that. It goes to the best player no matter how the team he plays for performs.

Before the five finalists were announced, these were my five choices:
QB Colt McCoy Texas – 3,512 yards passing, 27 TD’s
RB Toby Gerhart Stanford – 1,736 rushing yards, 26 TD’s
QB Tim Tebow Florida – 3,272 total yards, 31 total TD’s
RB Mark Ingram Alabama – 1,864 total yards, 18 total TD’s
QB Case Keenum Houston – 5,449 passing yards, 47 total TD’s

Very similar to the final five. I could make a case for others: DT Ndamukong Suh Nebraska, RB C.J. Spiller Clemson, QB Kellen Moore Boise State. I’m very happy that Suh was named a finalist. He is the true definition of a Heisman player. A game changer at defensive tackle of all places. Nebraska has had a complete turn around for its program thanks in part to Suh. Spiller has had an impressive season. 15 TD’s and over 1,500 total yards for a decent Clemson team. Moore is worthy of consideration with 3,300 passing yards and 39 TD’s. It just isn’t fair sometimes.

Ndamukong Suh’s stats are very respectable for being a Heisman finalist. 82 tackles, 23 for a loss. 12 sacks and an interception. Compared to the last defensive player to win the Heisman (CB Charles Woodson of Michigan) Suh’s are pretty good. Woodson had 47 tackles and 8 interceptions his Heisman year.

I’d like to think Suh will get it, but I believe the voters will go with the hot hand. Mark Ingram had a great game against Florida in the SEC championship game. Tim Tebow had a good year, but no overwhelming to warrant a second Heisman. Colt McCoy had a great year, but compared to Tebow not good enough to win it over him. Toby Gerhart was unstoppable down the stretch and I believe it will be enough to get him the Heisman. First to win from the University of Stanford since QB Jim Plunkett in 1970. Congrats to the winner whoever it may be on December 12.

I know it’s more than half way through the season. That’s why this is a 3/4 report of the NFL so far. Now there have been some lackluster teams this year. Seven teams don’t have more than 3 wins and another four don’t even have 5 wins. Now on the good side there are two teams at 11-0. Never happened before. Another team has 10 wins. Eight other teams could potentially win 10 or more games to finish the year. These next four weeks are going to have some great matchups and likely blowouts, but lets face it. We’ll still watch them all.

Best of the Best
Colts 11-0
Saints 11-0
Vikings 10-1

Heads and shoulders above the rest of the pack. Each of these teams have MVP quarterbacks leading them and pretty good defenses to back them up on their bad days. Indy has Peyton Manning and his knack for the comeback victories. Brett Favre is a 40 year old on a mission to shut everyone up. Drew Brees is still putting up great numbers against some of the best teams in the league. Just ask Bill Belichick.

Strong Contenders
Patriots 7-4
Bengals 8-3
Steelers 6-5
Chargers 8-3
Cowboys 8-3
Cardinals 7-4

The Bengals are the surprise here. No one had them on top of their division let alone sweeping it. Carson Palmer has the offense on a good pace. The defense is why they are winning. Kudos to Marvin Lewis turning it around so fast. The Steelers I still have here because one they are still the defending champs and two they have Ben Roethlisberger. The guy is a top 5 QB now. Admit it. San Diego has a great slew of weapons on offense and the defense is finally coming around at the right time. New England even with their problems (both on the sidelines and the field) are set to win the division. Dallas will need to have a good December to silence the critics heading into the playoffs. Arizona still has great receivers, an improving defense and a running game that actually can win games for them.

Awards (if they were given out now)
MVP: Peyton Manning Colts
Defensive Player of the Year: Darren Sharper Saints
Offensive Rookie of the Year: Percy Harvin Vikings
Defensive Rookie of the Year: Jairus Byrd Bills
Coach of the Year: Marvin Lewis Bengals

Now I’m not saying Drew Brees, Brett Favre or the many other candidates aren’t worthy, but Peyton is, well, still Peyton. A darn good quarterback. The come from behind victories. It’s been a magical year for Peyton and the Colts. Darren Sharper has been the same way on the defensive side for the Saints. Eight interceptions and how all of them weren’t returned for touchdowns I don’t know. Percy has been a great find for the Vikings who have an even more explosive offense now that he has arrived. Jairus Byrd has the ballhawking mentality needed for the Bills defense. He’s taken advantage of the injuries to the secondary and emerged as a great cover safety. Can’t go wrong with Marvin as the coach of the year. No disrespect to the other worthy candidates, but did any of you have the Bengals 8-3 at this point. I didn’t either.

New Super Bowl prediciton:
Saints vs. Chargers

Now my original pick was Chargers vs. Seahawks. I know don’t remind me. The Saints are a fun team to watch. It would’ve been great to see them in Super Bowl 41 against the Colts instead of the Bears. Now I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Colts back again, but I think that the Chargers have finally found their groove and will continue the climb to a first round bye. Great games to look forward too the rest of the way.

Well, I have returned from my mini vacation. Re-energized to bring you weekly columns and updates from the mind of yours truly. The NFL season starts in less than a week and College Football got started last night with a few interesting games of note. Utah continued its win streak to 15. South Carolina got their first win over NC State. And Boise State started their run for a shot at the BCS with a win over Oregon. But lost in all that was the unsportsmanlike thuggery of Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount (see above).

The NCAA has encouraged a pregame hand shake before the start of games this season. Fifteen players from both teams did this, including Blount. After the very sloppy game, which saw Oregon’s offense produce only fifteen total yards in the first half, Blount was approached by Boise’s linebacker Byron Hout. Hout proceeded to touch Blount’s shoulder pad and say something to him. Without hesitation, Blount turned and punched Hout right on the chin, bringing him down. Now if that wasn’t bad enough, Blount went after a teammate who was pulling him away from the Boise players that wanted a piece of him. Blount made things worse by wanting to “Ron Artest” his way into the stands to go after some knucklehead fans. Blount had to be restrained by police, security and Oregon staff back to the locker room.

Of course realizing he made a terrible mistake, he apologized right after the game,

“I should have handled that situation a lot better than I did,” he said. “I apologize. We will never have a game like this again. … The game, as it went on, just got more frustrating and more frustrating for me in general. I shouldn’t have said anything. I shouldn’t have done anything.”

It becomes a case of should have, would’ve, could have. You did make a mistake, a stupid one, and now you will pay. Today Oregon suspended him for the entire season. Was the punishment just? Yes I think it was. You don’t react to an opposing team like that, no matter what. Get off the field, get on the bus and get out. If that is all he would’ve done was punch Byron Hout, then he wouldn’t have been suspended for the year, I don’t think. But the fact that he made things worse by confronting and trying to go after fans warranted the season suspension. The knucklehead in him came out and now he has to pay for it. I don’t buy that the Boise player should be punished to. That’s what some players do on the winning team. They will say things and it’s up to the losing team to conduct themselves in a respectable fashion. Hout should not be punished, but I’m sure that he was told to go about it a different way from now on.

Blount has officially ruined his season and Oregon might not recover from this loss or incident. It’s a shame that this is how the Football season starts, but lets be honest, this probably would’ve happened at some point. The fact that we have to understand is this doesn’t happen very often, but when it does the punishment has to be swift and tough so it can possibly be stopped in the future.

I’ve been trying to avoid this for the last two months now. As I’m sure you have been to. Today was the day that Brett Favre would announce his decision on whether he would or would not join the Minnesota Vikings. Well that was Monday when it was reported and now he is second guessing himself. WHAT!? Are you kidding me Brett? What could possibly keep you from coming back this time? I for one don’t care anymore, but I probably want this to happen more than anyone.

Last year when he was traded to the Jets or as I called them the “Brett’s.” That was not his decision as Green Bay controlled him. When he almost immediately announced his retirement at the end of the season, speculation started on him changing his mind. Only because it happened the year before and it will probably happen again. Sure enough it was Minnesota that initiated the talks, just like the year before when he was in Green Bay. Now of course the Packers weren’t going to trade him to a division rival, but now Brett is free to decide where to go. Where else but the Vikings to stick it to Green Bay for two games. Well, specifically GM Ted Thompson who refused to let Brett back when he changed his mind.

For that reason alone I would love to see Brett come back and either ruin his legacy more or become a hero for a new team. Favre had surgery on the bum shoulder, which signaled that he was coming back. Now because he is reportedly getting text messages from Viking players Adrian Peterson, Jared Allen and Steve Hutchinson he is having a change of heart. Yeah, I guess the pressure can get to even the best of us. He now realizes that he has put himself and an entire franchise into a corner they can’t get out of. If he decides to go, expectations will be Super Bowl or bust. If he decides to stay retired, the Vikings will be stuck with Tavaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels who I’m sure are not happy at all about the whole situation. It’s a lose lose situation for Favre and Minnesota. I’m just so glad I’m not a Viking fan because I would be real worried about seeing him in purple and not seeing him in purple. Have fun.

There is never an easy way to put it, but to say it as you see it. Steve McNair was a great football player. By all accounts a great person in the community and for his family. The way he left will forever be a dark cloud that will hang over him though. To allegedly be unfaithful to his wife will taint what many considered to be a squeaky clean image. This is a tragedy that happens far too much in our society.

Two questions will come up in the aftermath. Does this make McNair’s image any different? Will this have an impact on today’s athletes? This will undoubtedly have an impact on today’s sports stars. Your taught that there is a right and a wrong way. This is the same here. Who would’ve thought that the woman he was seeing was going to buy a gun to kill him and herself. The question is why be with someone when your already married and have four sons to look after. This had the makings of a bad situation that would only get worse. And it did. It was horrible to hear they were both gunned down, but to gradually hear the circumstances of their death was making this disturbing.

His image is and will take a beating. It hasn’t happened full force. It doesn’t make it right though. I don’t like it anymore than you probably do, but that is how those with loud voices will say. Steve McNair will be remembered here as a football player first and this will be second. We won’t be able to forget these details because of the 24/7 news cycle were in. I won’t forget the only Super Bowl appearance he was in with that final drive, just one yard short. We lost a great player, husband, father, and son. Not to mention the young woman whose life was also cut short. The fourth of July was not a great day in 2009.