7 Heisman Trophy winners who didn’t meet expectations in the NFL

Johnny Manziel spent two seasons with the Cleveland Browns. 

College football stars Travis Hunter, Dillon Gabriel, Ashton Jeanty, and Cam Ward will gather in New York City on Saturday for the presentation of the Heisman Trophy, awarded annually to the best player in college football.

The prestigious award has been given to future NFL MVPs like Lamar Jackson (who won the Heisman in 2016 as a sophomore), Hall-of-Famers like Barry Sanders (who won in 1988 as a junior), and Super Bowl winners like Tony Dorsett (who won in 1976).

But, other award recipients have famously struggled to translate their collegiate success to the pros, breeding a superstition widely known as the Heisman curse.

Though it’s too soon to tell if recent winners like Jayden Daniels, Caleb Williams, or Bryce Young will fall victim to the supposed curse, here are seven such players who didn’t live up to expectations in the NFL.

Andre Ware — 1989 Heisman winner

Andre Ware was the first Black quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy.

Andre Ware made history in 1989 as the first Black quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy.

In his third season with the University of Houston, Ware threw for 4,699 yards and 46 touchdowns and set 26 NCAA records.

Ware declared for the 1990 NFL Draft and was selected seventh overall by the Detroit Lions. However, he saw little playing time behind starting quarterback Rodney Peete and backup Erik Kramer.

In Ware’s four seasons with the Lions, he played in 14 games, throwing for 1,112 yards, five touchdowns, and eight interceptions. He later bounced around to other teams, including the Minnesota Vikings, Los Angeles Raiders (now the Las Vegas Raiders), and Jacksonville Jaguars, but never took the field with any of them. He also played in the Canadian Football League and in the NFL Europe League (which existed from 1991-2007) before retiring.

Ware was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004.

B-17 was unable to reach Ware for comment.

Ty Detmer — 1990 Heisman winner

Ty Detmer won the Heisman Trophy in 1990.

Detmer won the Heisman Trophy during his junior year at Brigham Young University in 1990. That season, he led the Cougars to a 10-3 record, passing for 5,309 yards and 42 touchdowns.

The win that perhaps solidified Detmer’s chances at the Trophy was BYU’s 28-21 win over the University of Miami in just the second game of the season. Detmer threw for 406 yards and three touchdowns.

Two years later, he was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the ninth round of the NFL Draft. As the backup for starter Brett Favre, Detmer only had an opportunity to play in seven games for the team. In those games, played in the 1993 and 1995 seasons, he threw for 107 yards, one touchdown, and one interception.

In 1996, he was signed to the Philadelphia Eagles, and became the starter after Rodney Peete endured a season-ending knee injury. In 13 games, Detmer threw for 2,911 yards, 15 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions.

However, the following season, he was relegated to being a backup quarterback again, and only played in eight games. Detmer went on to play for the San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, and Atlanta Falcons, but remained a backup for the majority of his career, which he finished with 34 touchdowns and 35 interceptions.

Detmer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from B-17.

Gino Torretta — 1992 Heisman winner

Gino Torretta won the Heisman Trophy in 1992. 

University of Miami quarterback Gino Torretta is a ‘Canes football legend. In his Heisman-winning season, he threw for 3,070 yards and 19 touchdowns to lead the Hurricanes to an undefeated regular season. He also won the Davey O’Brien Award, the Walter Camp Award, the Maxwell Award, the Johnny Unitas Trophy, and the Chic Harley Award.

But despite his collegiate success, Torretta was selected in the seventh round of the 1993 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings. After not playing at all his rookie season, he was picked up by the Detroit Lions but again as a backup.

Torretta only ever played in one NFL game as quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks. He completed five of his 16 passes for 41 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. He retired from the NFL in 1999.

Torretta did not respond to B-17’s request for comment.

Danny Wuerffel — 1996 Heisman winner

Danny Wuerffel won the Heisman Trophy in 1996. 

Wuerffel’s Heisman-winning season with the University of Florida Gators saw him pass for 3,625 passing yards and 36 touchdowns, leading the team to an 11-1 record.

The following year, he was selected by the New Orleans Saints with the 99th pick in the 1997 NFL Draft. Across his three seasons with the Saints, Wuerffel played in 16 games, throwing for 1,404 yards and nine touchdowns.

He also spent single seasons in Green Bay, Chicago, and Washington before retiring after the 2002 season.

In an email sent to B-17, Wuerffel said, “While I didn’t have the NFL career I dreamt of as a kid, I still consider my time in the NFL a success. I met many amazing people and, more importantly, my pro journey led me to New Orleans where my life’s mission of serving others began with Desire Street Ministries.”

Desire Street Ministries is a religious organization that was founded in 1990. Wuerffel is the executive director.

Ron Dayne — 1999 Heisman winner

Ron Dayne won the Heisman Trophy in 1999.

Ron Dayne was one of the most prolific rushers in college football history, with a University of Wisconsin career total of 6,397 yards, not including statistics from bowl game appearances.

He earned the Heisman Trophy after his senior season, as one of just five players to finish each year of his collegiate career with more then 1,000 rushing yards. He’s also the only Big Ten player to win back-to-back Rose Bowl MVP awards.

Dayne now holds the record for second-most all-time rushing yards, though if his bowl game statistics were included (like the current all-time leader Donnel Pumphrey), he would lead with 7,125 total yards.

In the 2000 NFL Draft, Dayne was selected by the New York Giants. He finished his rookie season with 770 rushing yards for five touchdowns, averaging 3.4 yards per carry. His stats remained similar during his following three seasons with the Giants, recording 1,297 yards for 11 touchdowns and averaging between 3.4 and 3.8 yards per carry.

For context, in 2002, the top-10 running backs each rushed more than 1,297 yards that season.

Dayne later spent one season with the Denver Broncos and two seasons with the Houston Texans. He finished his NFL career with 3,722 yards and 28 touchdowns across seven seasons.

He did not respond to B-17’s request for comment.

Chris Weinke — 2000 Heisman winner

Chris Weinke won the Heisman Trophy at 28 years old.

Prior to pursuing a career in football, Weinke was actually selected in the second round of the 1990 MLB First-Year Player Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays. He played in the minor leagues until 1997 before attending Florida State University at 25 years old.

In his Heisman-winning senior season — at age 28 — Weinke led the NCAA in passing yards with 4,167. He is the oldest athlete to ever win the Heisman Trophy, and he still leads the Seminoles in all-time passing yards with 9,839.

He was selected in the fourth round of the 2001 NFL Draft by the Carolina Panthers. As a rookie, Weinke threw for 2,931 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 19 interceptions; and the Panthers finished the season 1-15. He remained with the Panthers for the following three seasons as a backup, playing in just 12 games and recording three touchdowns.

Weinke spent his last season in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers as a backup quarterback. He played in two games, threw for 104 yards, and one touchdown.

He’s now an assistant head coach, co-offensive coordinator, and quarterbacks coach at Georgia Tech University. He did not reply to B-17’s request for comment.

Johnny Manziel — 2012 Heisman winner

Johnny Manziel played in the NFL for two seasons.

In 2012, Manziel became the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy after a stellar season at Texas A&M.

Nicknamed “Johnny Football,” Manziel threw for 3,706 yards and 26 touchdowns and rushed 1,410 yards for an additional 21 touchdowns. He returned to the Aggies the following year and finished the season with 4,114 passing yards for 37 touchdowns, and 759 rushing yards for nine touchdowns.

After just two collegiate seasons, Manziel declared for the NFL Draft and was selected 22nd overall by the Cleveland Browns in 2014.

But before he could take his first NFL snap, Cleveland.com reported that the Browns were “alarmed” by Manziel’s off-field partying. His troubles continued into the season, from flashing an obscene gesture at the Washington bench during a preseason game in August to seeking treatment in January 2015.

In the post-game press conference, Manziel said he gets “words exchanged” with him throughout every game, adding, “I should’ve been smarter … I need to be smarter than that. There’s always words exchanged on the football field.” He also described the moment as a “lapse in judgement.”

He finished his rookie year having played in just five games, passing for 175 yards, no touchdowns, and two interceptions for a passer rating of 42.0. Manziel returned to Cleveland the following season, where he played in nine games and passed for 1,500 yards and seven touchdowns.

However, it was off-field troubles that continued to plague Manziel’s career, including a 2016 misdemeanor domestic violence charge. ESPN reported that the charges were dismissed in November 2017 after Manziel met the requirements of a dismissal agreement.

The Browns released Manziel in March 2016.

“When I got to Cleveland, I wasn’t in this head space to be able to just go play football,” Manziel told B-17in 2023. “I was struggling to get out of bed in the morning. I was struggling to fight thoughts and feelings that I had never really had before in my life.”

“I know that I’m still gonna walk down the street or go to a restaurant or go to a football game and people are still gonna recognize me,” Manziel added. “But at the end of the day, I wanna live a more normal, simplistic lifestyle now. I’m finding things that truly do make me happy without having to be in a spotlight every day.”

Manziel did not reply to B-17’s request for additional comment for this story.