Reactions to the ESPN 30 for 30 on the 1997 Heisman Race

I actually really enjoyed the vintage content angle a lot. Being a senior that year I was too close to it and went to every home game to consume much outside of what was going on in Ann Arbor. So to be able to see so much of the other candidates’ high and lowlights was new and interesting for me. 
 

That whole season was just so special for me and all of my friends. That rose bowl was my first time west of Chicago, and now I’ve lived in California since 2005. I still have grass turf sealed in Mitch’s mugs from the osu and rose bowl games. 
 

coincidentally during the summer of 1998 Leaf joined Woodson at the harbaugh celebrity golf outing in AA. My then gf was a bartender at scorekeepers and she said he tipped the staff generously, which still surprises me.

Didn't watch it and fully biased but when I see Mr Woodson out there vs Peyton I'm really goddamn happy Charles is our guy.  He should be the prime media voice for us

Woodson had to be better than the best to win the Heisman as a predominantly defensive player. Damn! 

CHUCK WOOD!!! 🌹

Poor damn Peyton.  He'll always be #2 to some "random" Michigan guy.

I will say what no one else says because for all these years it is hard to ignore the big pictire. I have always thought part of the Tenn fan meltdown was partially (or more than partially) racist. Their white super hero with a deep southern accent, who had a birthright to the Heisman to crown his greatness, loses to a black guy from the north. Of course they couldn’t handle that, it insulted their sense of up and down, good versus bad, what things are supposed to be.

Did anyone notice the Southern fans at games with at least TWO props hanging someone in effagy? I mean… Southern culture at its finest  

Yeah, the Herbstreit thing really threw me for a loop. Had no idea he’s been there that long. 

I have rooted against both Tennessee and Manning ever since that travesty.  Nebraska was undefeated only because of an illegally kicked ball that was caught for a TD.  They did not deserve consideration.  Fuck Fullmer.

What he said.

He won by overcoming the voting bias towards offense, by having played both sides of ball plus scoring TDs on punt returns.    It's the only way for a defensive player to win. Had Sainrisitl also had Wilsons numbers on offense and returned punts, and he would be on the list.

The comment at the end about how 3/4 of the finalist are 1st ballot hall of famers (an each can make an argument for being one of the best at their position all time) made Ryan Leaf look pretty out of place lol. 

Kinda forgot how many excellent players there were that year. Ricky Williams and Curtis enis too. Others I’m not remembering 

I'll never forget sitting in my parent's family room watching it from the floor. My sports/Michigan crazy 12 year old mind wanted Charles to win so bad but I felt like Manning would ultimately win just because he was a QB. I'll never forget the feeling of hearing, "From Michigan". Every young sports fan should be able to experience something like that. They all don't which is why I feel incredibly fortunate.

I don’t regret watching it, but I found it unsatisfying. Others have commented that there were no current interviews, which would have definitely strengthened the final product, but I thought the editors whiffed on the narrative, which they took to be “It was Peyton Manning’s to lose.” That’s actually an interesting narrative, but theyy didn’t effectively communicate it, with the result that they undersold what Woodson achieved. There was way too much emphasis on what the talking heads at that time were saying and not a good examination of what the players were actually doing. Too much off-field stuff, and not enough on-field.

But it was a remarkable class. Go back and look at the lists of Heisman finalists since 1982 (https://www.sportskeeda.com/college-football/list-of-heisman-trophy-finalists-year-by-year) and you can’t help but be struck by how many of them had negligible pro careers, much less Hall of Fame ones. By my count the list has 12 HoFers, 3 of whom were in that ‘97 class. Granted, more will be joining, but that was an exceptionally competitive year.

Wait Kirk was on tv in 1997? 

I’m watching it now but can we stop for a second and just appreciate the incredible Michigan/Penn State intro by Keith Jackson, what a fucking legend!

It’s hard for me to say who has been more butthurt by mannings failures to overcome his poor big game play: Tennessee fans or Indianapolis Colts fans. In 97-98 I didn’t live anywhere near Tennessee or Michigan, and the internet wasn’t as widely used (plus no social media). I’ve lived in Indiana since 2005 though and being surrounded by colts fans who still cannot accept that deflategate was pure bs, or Brady’s success over such a long career that has way overshadowed what Manning did in the nfl has me leaning towards towards them over Tennessee fans. 
 

97 was one of the few years I know of over the decades I’ve been following college football that the Heisman trophy actually got it right. Most years it’s been the best player on one of the best teams, but not necessarily THE best player in CFB.

What an awesome season!

Woodson’s season was a complete buildup and crescendo to The Game!  Every game Woodson changed the game!   He made plays on both sides of the ball. With each game from The start of the season Michigan was not expected to win the Big Ten or contend for the National Championship.  Preseason article titles What’s Wrong with Michigan?,  laid out the talent and approach.  Talked about beating top ten teams but blowing games clearly should be winning under Carr.   
 

Tennessee was supposed to contend for the sec title with Florida and as usual the winner of that game would win the sec east and likely sec champ.  But Manning’s senior season was more a victory lap than statement season.  Lost to Florida, had a couple very underwhelming games including late in the season against Vandy where he went 12-27 for 159yds as Woodson dominated against osu!  This was the difference imo.  While Manning had some monster games he didn’t have them against Florida in losses and the 8-25 for 126yds mid season against South Carolina really opened the door to other candidates!!!  The fact is most thought Peyton Manning had already earned the Heisman as a career award.  While ESPN was gaining massive momentum in its cf gameday show was talking about several candidates.  
 

ESPN Gameday appeared at 6 Michigan games that season for its pregame and post game shows.  Judgement Day changed everything for Michigan and Woodson!!   Woodson scoring td and locking down another future nfl receiver as well as an absolute domination of Penn State left the game day crew talking about Woodson for the Heisman and the discussion of best offensive player or best player in the game….  That final game versus Ohio state where Woodson changed the game setting up the first td for Michigan on a huge reception taking the ball to the redzone then the punt return for a td and then an interception in the end zone had Woodsons stamp on the biggest game of the regular season again, while Peyton Mannint had a subpar performance against Vandy really was the difference!  

Just watched. All I know is I need a link any online archive of "The Sporting Jews." 

Seth, can you hook me up?

I loved the little '97 styled internet message board motif they came up with. That was some nice craftsmanship. I think Mgoblog uses version 2 of that software (OOF).

And don't forget, without that award, we wouldn't have this:

Saw it today and liked it. 
 

One thing that an ESPN exec I know mentioned to me that I think might be relevant to the decision to use footage only: apparently it has become very hard to do these documentaries independently from the athletes, who now want to have co-producing credit or even shared revenue through their own production companies. One way to avoid that is to do what was done here, though I don’t know for a fact that is why it ended up that way.