Eight Heisman Trophy winners are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. NFL Films thinks Tim Tebow is already a better pro than three of them.
In a program that suggests that NFL Films cares more about cashing in on Tebowmania than accurately documenting the history of football, Tuesday’s premiere of Top 10 Heisman Winners in the NFL ranks Tebow at No. 7. From USA Today, here’s the full list:
1. Barry Sanders
2. Roger Staubach
3. O.J. Simpson
4. Paul Hornung
5. Charles Woodson
6. Tony Dorsett
7. Tim Tebow
8. Earl Campbell
9. Marcus Allen
10. Cam Newton
Frankly, this is embarrassing. Campbell and Allen are in the Hall of Fame, but Tebow -- a quarterback with 14 career starts and a completion rate of 47.3 percent -- is already better than both of them? Doak Walker won the Heisman Trophy in 1948 and had a Hall of Fame career with the Lions in the 1950s, and NFL Films can’t find a place for him on the list because it wants to squeeze in two of today’s most marketable players, Tebow and Newton?
It’s silly to have Newton on the list after one NFL season, but if Newton and Tebow both have to be on the list then Newton should be higher than Tebow: Does anyone really believe that if the Panthers tried to trade Newton, they’d only be able to get a fourth-round draft pick, which is all the Broncos could get when they put Tebow on the market?
These NFL Network Top 10 programs usually provide an entertaining and enlightening look at football history, and this list would be perfectly good if Tebow and Newton were tossed out and replaced by Walker and another deserving candidate like Alan Ameche, Tim Brown or Eddie George. But the inclusion of Tebow and Newton at the expense of players who had truly great NFL careers makes this list insulting.