Grant Morgan Finalist for 'Collegiate Man of Year' Award
Chances are you didn’t see the release yesterday that Arkansas linebacker Grant Morgan was named one of three finalists for the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award.
If that’s the case, just know it doesn’t make you less of a die-hard fan. It’s simply a case of whoever is in charge of marketing and public relations for the award (pardon the incredibly on the nose pun) dropping the ball.
The JWCMYA, doesn’t it just roll off the keyboard, is an award that truly deserves respect and recognition. It recognizes leadership, sportsmanship, courage and integrity both on and off the field.
Those are characteristics not only needed in the sports world, but that are terribly lacking in the world in general. The world not only needs more Grant Morgans, it needs the opportunity to see young men and women like Morgan.
That’s why it was disappointing to see this news come down in the heat of the NCAA signing day. It was completely buried, which was unfortunate for the nominees.
It takes borderline gross negligence to send out a finalist notification for a college award on the most singularly focused news day of the college sports world.
This isn’t a day for putting out non-signing day news you would want people to see.
It’s premium time for announcing your school just got sanctioned for the second time in a decade under the same coach. It’s when you announce the fundraising for stadium expansion fell through, thus nixing the project.
Football’s national signing day is the ultimate golden shovel to bury your darkest indiscretions several tabs deep on sports websites. It’s a PR director’s dream as it’s the one day dirty laundry gets drowned out by talk of teenagers channeling their inner Scooby Doo to reveal it was Deion Sanders under the mask all along.
Kentucky defensive end Joshua Paschal and Oklahoma safety Patrick Fields were also named finalists.
The three nominees carry tremendous respect both on and off the field, which is why they were nominated. It’s just a shame someone in an office in Texas didn’t think to reflect that respect back by choosing to wait 24 hours before releasing the results.
For those of you who didn’t see the announcement yesterday, the awards ceremony will take place on Feb. 17 in Frisco, Texas, which is where the Dallas Cowboys, the team where Witten played all but one year of his career, is headquartered.
If you were checking your calendars, no, that’s not the day of the Super Bowl. It’s four days afterward.
At least the winner will receive the full respect and attention he deserves.
