Brady Hoke sighting!

I was at the bar last night and was having a discussion with my sparty friend and another Michigan fan about the Tebow/Manning deal. It came up how bitter Peyton is at Michigan because he lost the Heisman to Woodson. The sparty of course said that Manning should have won because he has proven that he is the better player because "look what he has done with the Colts". I of course stopped him right there because how are the voters supposed to know what kind of a professional career someone has after they leave college? The Heisman is for the most outstanding college football player, it says nothing of the NFL.

Then the sparty says, "Well, you've gotta admit that the QB is the most important person on the field."

I rolled my eyes at the pure sparty hatred for anything Michigan, even 15 years old they still hate Michigan.

Then the Wolverine fan that was talking with us said, "I don't care what you say, I've still never seen a more impressive interception."

The sparty replied, "I don't know what you are talking about."

I said, "Of course the sparty has blocked it out in his mind because it happened against his team."

The sparty then insists that he still has no idea what we are talking about so I pull out my phone and find the play. The sparty watched it and then goes, "Yea that was a good play but one play doesn't give you a Heisman."

Then I brought-up the Punt returns, the stats, the fact that Woodson played both sides of the ball. Eventually he gave up because he realized that he was wrong (something sparty normally doesn't do-realize that they are wrong).

Anyway, after that long story about why I was watching that clip I'll tell you why that is relevant to Brady Hoke. Watch the link I provide, guess who is on the side-line congratulating Woodson? Sure, he is a lot younger and a lot thinner, plus no grey-hairs but weren't we all younger & thinner 15 years ago?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk5u20AuXkE

Additionally, I needed to view that terrific moment in history again after yesterday's events in Green Bay...

I read through 3/4 of this story expecting it to end with Brady Hoke randomly walking into this bar.

Clearly you're sparty friend is an idiot.

That was redundant, a sparty who is an idiot? Well, duhhh...

Tell your Spartan friend that a big part of winning the Heisman trophy is the result of making big plays in big games. Peyton was his usually awful self in a loss to Florida, throwing a pick 6 and ending his career 0-4 against the Gators. And in the Orange Bowl, he could not do anything against Nebraska's defense (the same Husker defense that gave up 38 points to a 5 loss Missouri team and 25 points to a 7 loss Central Florida team) and he was pulled in the game with the Vols down 24. I always saw that as confirmation that the right choice was made. Woodson won the big games, Peyton did not.

Besides, what does a Spartan know about Heisman trophies anyway? I'm reminded of the old joke:

Where was O.J. Simpson trying to escape to in the Ford Bronco?

East Lansing, Michigan. He knew the police would never think to look for a Heisman winner there.

Ahhhhh, the Woodson pick. That's still mind boggling to watch even to this day. Several years back at the M-DEN, I saw a giant framed picture of Woodson's interception looking from directly behind him and you can see the MSU marching band behind him looking on disbelief. I would have bought it but it cost a couple hundred dollars. I went back to the M-Den a couple weeks later and it was gone.

As for the Brady Hoke sightings, it's interesting to look back now at any game between 1995 and 2002 and spot him.

1997 MSU -



1997 OSU -



1999 ND -



2002 Penn State -

Yea, the most surprising thing is that he was thinner back then, but I guess we all were...