Why a Tennessee Fan Can't Cheer for the Packers.

We often view the Green Bay Packers as one of the proudest franchises in American sports, and this is largely true.  They are the only publicly owned franchise in American sports and because of this their fans are more connected to the team and probably possess a greater passion for their team.

But they hire thieves; no the Packers don’t search out cat burglars like those from the home security commercials and put them roster, but they do hire Heisman thieves.  Two of the University of Tennessee’s greatest football players were robbed by a pair of jackals of the frozen tundra almost forty years apart.

In 1956 Paul Hornung was awarded the Heisman trophy after leading his Notre Dame Fighting Irish to a 2-8 record.  No that is not typo the winner of the Heisman lost eight games in 1956.  The runner up that year was Tennessee’s Johnny Majors. 

Hornung who played quarterback for the Golden Domers completed a stellar 53% of his passes and had a touchdown to interception ratio of 3:13.  Majors, whose primary responsibility on offense was rushing, was still a more successful passer than Hornung. Not to mention that his team went undefeated in the regular season. 

Hornung was a do everything player for the Irish and was almost their entire offense, but giving him the Heisman would be the equivalent to awarding Randall Cobb the Heisman, except Cobb managed to win six games at Kentucky.  Yes he was a great player but he did not earn the Heisman.

What is more astonishing is that not only did Hornung take the Heisman from Tennessee’s Majors, he took it from Jim Brown.  Yes arguably the greatest football player ever was defeated in the Heisman race by a guy who had a losing record.

In the next year’s NFL Draft the Green Bay Packers would select Hornung with the first overall pick and would become an integral cog in the Packers run throughout the sixties, though he did not play in his lone Super Bowl appearance with the Packers due to injury.

The Packers would acquire cornerback Charles Woodson in 2006 nine years after Woodson stole the Heisman from another Tennessee great, Peyton Manning.

Woodson was a very good college player but when simply analyzing his production he did not deserve the Heisman. But as he crossed the goal line on a 78 yard punt return against Ohio State in 1997 he took the trophy from the grasps of Manning as well as a Rose Bowl Birth from the Buckeyes.

Woodson averaged only four tackles a game but did haul in an impressive eight interceptions, comparatively Tennessee’s Eric Berry finished his sophomore year in 2008 with seven picks, 72 tackles and no Heisman.

But Woodson did make a huge offensive impact, ya , he had 14 touches on offense the whole season.  But wait he averaged 8.6 yards per punt return and what is even more glaring is without the return against Ohio State he averaged 6.4 yards per return. 

Manning was one of the most prolific passers college football has ever seen and in 1997 he threw 36 touchdowns, 9 times as many as Woodson accounted for, and 3800 yards.

The fact that either Hornung or Woodson won the Heisman can only be viewed as an abomination of the award, and outright thievery from two of the greatest players Tennessee has ever known. Supporting the Packers only further glorifies the legacy of these thieves of Lambeau.