Sports are a very superstitious thing.

People are always concerned about curses and rituals. Whether it is the Boston Red Sox having the Curse of the Bambino where they went 86 years without winning a World Series after trading away Babe Ruth to the Yankees or a basketball player dribbling the ball an exact number of times before shooting a free throw, people always look for an explanation.

So now for the "Heisman Curse"

In the history of the Heisman trophy, ten men have won both the Heisman and a Super Bowl out of a possible 81 total Heisman winners (12.35% accomplishment rate), and one of those Heisman wins was vacated (Reggie Bush, 2005 Heisman winner and Super Bowl XLIV winner with the New Orleans Saints). When it comes to winning the MVP and the Heisman, it's an even lower accomplishment rate at 11.11%, or 9 out of 81 total winners.

The last Heisman winner to win a Super Bowl was unofficially Reggie Bush and officially Charles Woodson (1997 Heisman and Super Bowl XLV winner), which means that there isn't a Heisman winner from this decade who won a Super Bowl, and there isn't officially one this century.

But the Super Bowl is a team achievement, so how about the NFL MVP award?

Cam Newton is the last person to win both, winning the Heisman in 2010 and the MVP in 2016. Newton is the only person to do it this century (Barry Sanders won the 1988 Heisman and the 1997 MVP), and one of only three quarterbacks to ever do both, joining Paul Hornung and Roger Staubach. If you don't recognize the other two names, it means you were probably not in 60's.

The reason why I am focusing on quarterbacks is because TWO Heisman winning quarterbacks are entering and the NFL Draft this year, Baker Mayfield and Lamar Jackson, and Johnny Manziel (2012 Heisman) is trying to make a comeback. Only twice in the history of the NFL have two Heisman winning quarterbacks been drafted in the same draft: 2010 and 2015

Let's talk about 2015 first.

Back in 2015, Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota were drafted 1st and 2nd overall. In three years, they have combined for one playoff win (Mariota 2017) and one Pro Bowl (Winston 2015), so while time will tell about these two, it doesn't look good right now. Given that Winston is also still under investigation for an Uber incident, it might be all on Mariota to make these two look better. Then again, they are already better than 2010.

The 2010 draft saw quarterbacks Sam Bradford and Tim Tebow drafted in the 1st round. Tebow now plays baseball and Bradford is on his fourth team in five year to go along with two ACL tears. They have a combined one playoff win and zero Pro Bowls, with the win belonging to Tebow.

For those of you keeping track at home, that is two playoff wins and one Pro Bowl for the Heisman quarterbacks drafted this decade not named Cam Newton. In fact, Cam Newton has as many playoff wins as EVERY Heisman winning quarterback this CENTURY (Carson Palmer has one to go with Mariota's and Tebow's wins), which sums up the success of Heisman quarterbacks in the NFL.

Mayfield and Jackson will have the opportunity to rewrite history by being successful Heisman quarterbacks in the NFL and join the list of Super Bowl winning Heisman quarterbacks. Jim Plunkett and Staubach won multiple Super Bowls as starting quarterbacks and Paul Hornung and John Huarte won theirs as back-ups. Since Plunkett won his Super Bowl in 1984, no other quarterback has won a Super Bowl, which means that as of the next Super Bowl (LIII), it will have been 35 YEARS since it happened.

The two Heisman winners probably want to accomplish more than that though, with both likely wanting to join Staubach as the only quarterbacks to win a Heisman, a Super Bowl, and an NFL MVP as a starting quarterback (Hornung was a backup for his Super Bowl).

Back to the original question though, is the Heisman cursed?

Yes, especially if you play quarterback. In this decade, if you take Cam Newton out of the equation, Heisman quarterbacks are literally just as likely to play baseball as they are to play in a Pro Bowl (Robert Griffin III never played in the Pro Bowl due to a torn ACL). I know that seems cheap to remove Newton for that stat, but it shows how ridiculous it has been and it's only the second most ridiculous stat.

Here is a stat that is more ridiculous: Heisman-winning quarterbacks this century are equally likely to TEAR THEIR ACL as they are to play in a Pro Bowl. Bradford, Robert Griffin III, and Carson Palmer torn their ACLs, with Bradford and Palmer doing it twice. Palmer, Newton, and Winston are the only three to play in a Pro Bowl, since RGIII missed his opportunity to play due to his ACL.

Mayfield and Jackson are two guys I want to see succeed in the NFL because I liked them both in college, but history and the Heisman curse say otherwise.