The Heisman Trophy is Trash

The Heisman Trophy will be awarded on Saturday and, once again, college football fans will tune in to watch one of the most overdone, self-important award ceremonies in sports. The award has a long history, supposedly to honor the best player in college football, but in reality, the presentation turns into an hour-long circle-jerk about the importance of college football, and in the end, the best quarterback or running back in the country is named the winner.

This year's winner will almost certainly be Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson, who is an awesome player and a lot of fun to watch. That's great for him, and he deserves it.

That said, almost everything about this award is ridiculous.

• Voters are not allowed to say who they voted for before the award is announced. Why? There's really no good reason. I suppose the Heisman Trust doesn't want any hints out about who might win, but in a close year, it's unlikely enough of the 1,000-some-odd ballots would be revealed to show the winner. It's even more ridiculous in a race like this year's since we already know Lamar Jackson is going to win. The Heisman Trust even took away someone's vote for this. It is dumb.
• The Heisman Trust pretends that "integrity" is a consideration for the award, in order to appeal to old people. However, it really just rewards the best offensive football player. Remember, Jameis Winston won the award in 2013 right after being accused of sexual assault.
• Speaking of "integrity," The Heisman Trust took away Reggie Bush's 2005 Heisman Trophy and his future Heisman votes because he took money for being good at football. The organization made a big deal out of it and forced Bush to send the trophy back. Meanwhile, man of integrity O.J. Simpson still gets to vote for the award from prison.
• Even though the trophy is supposed to go to the best player in college football, it almost always goes to a quarterback or running back. The closest a defensive player has come since the turn of the millennium is Ndamakong Suh in 2009. Suh was undoubtedly the best player in the sport that year, and the winner, Alabama running back Mark Ingram, ranked 34th nationally in yards per attempt. Voting is all-but limited to an offensive player on a good team.

Sure, winning the Heisman is cool and all—the winners of the award should feel proud or whatever. But if your favorite player doesn't win the Heisman, don't be too mad. The award is self-important and often fails to live up to its stated mission.