Eli Manning The Heisman Trophy example essay topic

Introduction In modern-day college football, the Heisman Trophy is more than just about what happens on the field. There has to be a buildup. A Heisman campaign. Presented to the outstanding collegiate football player of the United States, the Heisman Memorial Trophy widely is regarded as the most coveted individual prize in all of collegiate sports. Some voters, however, believe Heisman campaigning is not in the best interest of college football. Bob Hammel, a columnist for the Bloomington Herald-Times in Indiana, also a former Heisman voter is one of those people.

He has even gone as far as to say "I'm less inclined to vote for the candidate being merchandize d, and I've never seen a case where (campaigning) worked". This was definitely the case in 2002 when Oregon spent a record setting $250,000.00 to promote Joey Harrington when they obnoxiously put an 80'x 100' billboard in the middle of Times Square. Did Joey win that year? Nope.

Last year Marshall University sent a bobblehead doll of their candidate, Byron Leftwich, to each of the voters but unfortunately this tactic failed too. This brings us to the trend for majority of the 2003 Heisman Trophy candidates. Less is more. Especially, in the case of Eli Manning. What is the message they are trying to communicate to the public about? This student athlete is enrolled at Mississippi State University.

He is a 6-foot-5,218 pound quarterback and he entered his senior year with 6,519 yards, 52 touchdowns, and 24 school records but that's not all. Eli has some academic achievements as well. His name has appeared at the SEC Academic Honor Roll consistently since 1999. The school's Sports Information Director, Langston Hughes will take any opportunity to point out Eli's academic achievements which is a wise move on his part. This aids in showing that he is an all-around good player. One further example was exhibited last semester when Eli was forced to make a difficult decision.

Along with his family, he realized he would be a potential first round draft pick, only he would not be able to continue his studies at Ole Miss. Eli displayed his dedication to his school work and is completing his last 3 credits and will graduate with a degree in marketing this winter. The university takes a stance by being respectful and obeying the requests of Eli and most importantly Eli's family. Ole Miss Sports Information Director, Langston Hughes' job is to lead the campaign for the Heisman trophy candidate. All the hype surrounding Eli must make it difficult to keep it as low-key as requested by the athlete's family. It has been said by every member of the Manning clan that the bottom line is the only pressure that should exist should be geared toward winning games, not trophies.

"The pressure comes from trying to win games", says Eli. How are using and targeting: Print Media: Many articles have been written about Eli Manning. Every outlet available has been utilized. They range from ESPN, Sports Illustrated, The Clarion Ledger (Mississippi's local paper), and The Daily Mississippian (Ole Miss's chool newspaper), just to name a few. Some articles have been feature stories about Eli, some have been just factual information to gain hype to further his campaign, and others have just been commentary by the authors about Eli's performances and his greatness. ESPN has said that Eli will be the top quarterback in next year's NFL Draft.

The feature stories have been supportive of his accomplishments and make him out to be a shoe in for this year's winner. The local papers, The Daily Mississippian and The Clarion Ledger, encourage attendance to their games and heighten the school's spirit. The schools media guide even goes so far as to label him "An All-Star Candidate", which implies that they obviously believe in him. Columnists have been complimentary and overall there have been no bad things printed about Eli with the exception of bad performances.

Eli shines in this type of media because it is very one-sided. They may pick apart his decisions, his game, and his leadership but since he is well liked by many, it is hard to find something bad written about him. TV Media: There are several categories of TV interviews: live, taped, talk shows, etc. but all that matters is how the interviewee handles the pressure of being in the "hot seat". Notre Damn requires its athletes to go through a 2 hour media training session before they are allowed to be interviewed. Maybe Eli Manning should have been a Fighting Irishman rather than a Rebel. The kind of questions that are being asked are all typical, and ones that he can easily be prepped for.

Being in front of a camera can change a person. Eli doesn't appear nervous or dumb founded but I did find his answers to be too straight forward and lacking a certain spark. His answers are most often short, sweet, and to the point. Some of his interviews take place right after the conclusion of a game which may influence his responses.

Eli's responses are polite but brief, possibly the result of growing up in a football household. I think he is overall very shy and would just prefer to keep to himself. Radio Media: Eli has appeared on radio shows such as ESPN Sports Radio, CBS Sportsline Radio and local radio talk shows like Biz Radio 990. His responses are similar to those that you would expect on TV; the environment is the only exception.

Eli's radio interviews are sometimes right after a game (post-game interviews), which may influence his responses. The format of radio interviews plays a large role too. They can either be a talk show where he would be involved in something similar to a round table discussion or a call-in show, where listeners can call in and answer questions. Either way radio is always very carefully scripted which can be either a pro or a con. Eli's attitude can also influence how he is perceived. Sometimes he can come across nervous, possibly because he is not sure which questions he may come across.

For interviews directly after a game, he may come across as tired or un-prepared. Despite of the style show Eli always answers every question which is crucial and mentions his team members, who helped him get the win. What is the school's Web Site Strategy? The purpose of a website is to be able to answer all the questions that the reader has. Eli's official website can be easily accessed only from the school's athletic home page. The most interesting fact is that it makes no mention of the Heisman Trophy.

There is no elaborate welcome when you first enter the page, nor are there any scrolling headlines about the outcome of the day's game. The table of contents can be found on the top of the page where you can follow the links to some basic information: his bio, his numbers, game by game statistics, what is being said about him in the news. The rest is just information comparing him to his family members. If you were to click on one of the links you would be provided with infinite amounts of stats, sure to please any fan which is appropriate because the site's target audience is fan-based. Someone could definitely enter his school sponsored website with very little knowledge of who Eli Manning is, and easily leave feeling prepared to answer almost any question. I assume that the webmaster is the Langston Hughes, Ole Miss's ports Information Director but there is no evidence to back that up.

Some other things that I feel it lacks is a list of upcoming games, and their current record, how one can attend a game, where Eli can been seen next, possibly a message board, and most importantly more pictures. You can only find a half a dozen pictures on Eli's official website. Basically this website exists only to give it's readers a conglomerate of facts and information. Some awesome graphics would definitely liven it up a bit. What would you recommend specifically to augment the exposure?

There is not an article, interview, or story that exists that doesn't make some mention about Eli's family and who came before him. In fact his whole campaign has been focused around it. Eli is a great player but that is because it is in his blood. You may have heard of his brother, Peyton Manning, the star quarterback for the NFL's Indianapolis Colts.

His family tree may help his Q rating but all the campaigning for Peyton left a bad taste in the mouth of their father, Archie Manning, a former Ole Miss quarterback and two time Heisman Trophy finalist who has pushed since Eli's junior year that he doesn't want an all out media frenzy. Since then he has conceded by agreeing to a campaign, as long as it's not too elaborate. Although this tactic was probably not done on purpose, the reverse psychology tick just may win Eli Manning the Heisman trophy. At the beginning of the season all the articles that were written about Eli Manning had to do with the lack of campaigning for the Heisman trophy. Sure, there was mention about how great a player he is but with each article written, it provided more fuel to the fire.

When Archie Manning announced that he didn't want a campaign and then reneged on his first decision it drew the attention closer. Maybe this was the tactic. Instead of using billboards, bumper stickers with silly slogans, or dolls the whole idea was to bring the attention by saying they didn't want any. Eli said it himself in an interview with the Washington Times, "The fact that we said we weren't running a campaign probably made more people interested in the story". When a presidential candidate runs for office they hire someone to run their campaign. That person's job is to make sure their candidate gets votes.

After all that is the point of running. If Eli wants to win football's most prestigious award I suggest a little more enthusiasm and support from him and his camp. Why is no one excited that he was even nominated? Susan Lucci still gets excited every time she is nominated for an Emmy. Why isn't Eli acting like he wants it? His timid and un enthused responses may lead fans to believe he doesn't want it bad enough.

Let's take a look at Eli's biggest opponents. North Carolina's Philip Rivers has a fan running his official website for him. Matt Schaub, quarterback for Virginia, is turning out to be very entertaining by offering live chats and fun facts on his website. Northern Illinois' Michael Turner and Miami's Ben Roethlisberger both have clever slogans that draw attention to their campaigns. My point is that all these people have their names out there and Eli's camp can't even put a link on his website to actually go out and vote for him. Adding a link on his official website could only gain more votes.

Any unofficial web sites or blogs / chat rooms promoting the Heisman candidate? When you type Eli Manning's name into a search engine you are transported to many sports chat rooms that mention his name, maybe not as many as you would see for Derek Jeter but definitely a few. Most of them consist of someone asking a question and people just posting responses to the previous persons comment. You can ask just about anything that the webmaster will allow. Fans use it as an outlet to discuss performances both on and off the field. One chat room was spreading rumors that Eli was spotted kissing Britney Spears.

Although untrue, (Eli claims they have never even met) it only proves that chat rooms can make or break a person. Just about every website, official or unofficial, offers a link to a chat room that they sponsor. The messages that are posted have basically the same information that you can find on the Ole Miss website. Fans are simply cutting and pasting his stats and passing them off as if they did their own research. It's either that or men with ego's the size of Texas, mouthing off against each other. I found it all to be very barbaric.

I searched and searched with no avail for an unofficial website for Eli Manning. There were plenty of message boards and chat rooms dedicated to his performance but there were no cheesy websites with the Ole Miss fight song and pictures of Eli plastered on the background as one might have suspected. Maybe after he is drafted and he brings his team to a Superbowl we may see an increase in Eli Manning websites. Until then fans will just have to support the official one that the school has put out. Conclusion With no real front runner this year it will be hard to determine the outcome of this year's Heisman Trophy winner. Eli is definitely up there but he is also up against some pretty fierce competition.

Overall, Ole Miss has done a campaign that is up to par as far as Eli and his family are concerned, but will it be enough for voters to cast their vote for Eli? I know he definitely has my vote..