Voir ESPN Films: 30 for 30, Vol. 5 - Episode 20

There may be no award in sports as synonymous with a game as the Heisman Trophy is with college football. And there was likely no year in the history of the award as memorable, as transformative, and as controversial as 1997. The ESPN 30 for 30 The Great Heisman Race of 1997 takes an immersive, time-capsule style approach to telling that story, going back a quarter century to chronicle a season that fans will never forget, featuring some of the greatest players ever to take a college football field at the center of it. At Tennessee, Peyton Manning had stunned the sports world by deciding to return for his senior season and spurning the NFL, making him the Heisman front-runner as he set his sights on an SEC Championship. But while Manning would be the preseason favorite for the hallowed honor, other candidates would find their way into the conversation when the games began. There was Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf, making a bid for an even more impressive season than Manning. Iowa running back Tavian Banks got off to a lightning-fast start. In West Virginia, after troubled stints at Notre Dame and Florida State, Randy Moss had emerged as a seemingly unstoppable wide receiver at Marshall. And then there was Charles Woodson, the Michigan cornerback who was so talented that the Wolverines made him a two-way player, designing plays for him at wide receiver. In what would be the third and final year for the Bowl Alliance system, the season would be a collection of thrills and surprises. And when Tennessee lost its third game of the year to Florida, it began to feel like any notion of a preordained Heisman for Manning was on shaky ground. Michigan and Woodson would storm through the Big Ten in an undefeated season, with each week momentum building for the unprecedented – a defensive player winning the Heisman – even as traditionalists appeared to favor the Tennessee QB. All the debate and controversy would culminate on the first Saturday in December at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York. THE GREAT HEISMAN RACE OF 1997 is told through archive materials from that season, taking viewers in a veritable college football time machine along the way. In a seminal season in the sport’s history, the Heisman debate lived at the center of the excitement, telling an unforgettable story for all time.