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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1228620, member: 289"] A caller to "Bud and the Manchild" today asked how many Heisman winners have "made it" in the NFL. It was suggested that i might be be able to come up with an answer. I just sent them this via. E-mail: A caller today wondered who won the Heisman Trophy and gone on to “make it” in the NFL. I assumed he meant to become a star-quality player in the NFL. I decided to see what Heisman winners had been chosen to play in the pro bowl, which began in 1950, as a measure of “making it”. The earliest Heisman Trophy winner who was still playing in the NFL in 1950 was the 1946 winner, Glenn Davis and he played in the Pro Bowl. The others, with their trophy winning year: 1947 Johnny Lujack 1948 Doak Walker 1949 Leon Hart 1953 Johnny Lattner 1954 Alan Ameche 1956 Paul Hornung 1957 John David Crow 1963 Rger Staubuach 1968 OJ Simpson 1969 Steve Owens 1976 Tony Dorsett 1977 Earl Campbell 1978 Billy Sims 1979 Charles White 1980 George Rogers 1981 Marcus Allen 1982 Herschel Walker 1983 Mike Rozier 1984 Doug Flutie 1985 Bo Jackson 1986 Vinnie Testaverde 1987 Tim Brown L 1988 Barry Saunders 1991 Desmond Howard 1995 Eddie George 1997 Charles Woodson 1998 Ricky Williams 2002 Carson Palmer 2010 Cam Newton 2012 Robert Griffin III I’ll add in these names: Billy Cannon (1959) and Mike Garrett (1965) played in the AFL All-star game. Jim Plunkett, (197)) won two Super Bowls but never played in the pro Bowl. Sam Bradford (2010) was the NFL’s offensive rookie of the year in 2011. I think you can say they “made it” in the NFL. The last two winners are still laying college ball. Prior to Davis, pro football was not really “big time and many eschewed it. Also several of them went right into military service during the war and had no or limited careers in football after they got out. Davey O’Brien (138) played in the 1939 NFL All-star game , (between the champion Green Bay Packers and an all-star team from the rest of the league), then retired after the 1940 season to become an FBI agent. If you read about Tom Harmon’s career with the Rams, I think he did fairly well but he retired after two years with leg problems. Frankie Sinkwichw as the NFL MVP in 1944, two eyars after winnign the Heisman. Others, (Doc Blanchard, Davis, Pete Dawkins, Joe Bellino and Roger Staubach) had military service requirements to fulfill. Blanchard and Dawkins remained in the Military and Bellino had a very limited pro career after he got out. If you add O’Brien, Harmon, Sinkwich, Cannon, Garrett, Plunkett and Bradford to the above list, I’d say that 38 Heisman Trophy winners have “made it” in the NFL out of 77 through 2012. That’s 49%. if you eliminate the guys who never gave the NFL a try (Jay Berwanger, Larry Kelley, Clinton Frank, Nile Kinnick, Doc Blanchard and Pete Dawkins), it's 38 of 71 (53.5%). [/QUOTE]

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