Only One Player Can Say He Was Truly Drafted First In The NFL... And It's Not Cam Ward

In the wake of Deion’s kid not going until the 144th pick, I thought I would toss in a little Twisted History of the NFL Draft. And people fixated on draft coverage may have already heard some of this from either Mel Kiper or some other talking head as they try to kill time between picks. But for the rest of us, here goes… And we start in college.

The first ever Heisman Trophy winner in 1935 was Jay Berwanger from the University of Chicago.

Bettmann. Getty Images.

He finished ahead of 3 other nominees, all with GREAT football names- Army's Monk Meyer, Notre Dame's William Shakespeare, and Princeton's Pepper Constable.

And here’s another tidbit from Berwanger’s college days before we move to the pros… During the 1934 season, a center for Michigan named Gerald Ford became the only future U.S. President to tackle a future Heisman Trophy winner when he brought down Berwanger in a game where Michigan (on their way to an eventual 1-7 season) was routed by Chicago 27-0. And Berwanger left his mark on Ford as a noticeable scar beneath the future president's left eye.

Bettmann. Getty Images.

(Scarface)

But that was college… Back to the draft… In 1936, that same guy, Jay Berwanger, became the first player drafted into the NFL in its inaugural draft. The Eagles took him, but did not think they would be able to meet his reported salary demands, so they traded his negotiating rights to the Chicago Bears. However, Berwanger chose NOT to sign with the Bears to preserve his amateur status so that he could compete for a spot on the U.S. team for the 1936 Olympic Games in the decathlon.

And if you are questioning why someone would jeopardize an NFL career to be an Olympian, let me remind you of 2 things:

1) It was the 1936 Olympics, and that was the one held in Berlin where one of the greatest Olympians of all time, Jesse Owens, shoved his four medals down Hitler’s fucking throat.

Ed Vebell. Getty Images.

And 2) Again… It was 1936, and the league wasn’t shit back then.

After he missed the Olympic cut, Berwanger and Bears owner George Halas were unable to reach an agreement on salary. Berwanger requested $15,000 a season, and Halas' final offer was $13,500. Instead, he took a job with a Chicago rubber company.

So the first player taken in the first draft never played a down of professional football.

Even though Berwanger never played in the NFL or compete in the Olympics, he did continue his athletic pursuits after college by playing rugby with a team in Chicago that won 19 straight games and a championship, beating a team from New York, which coincidentally, had the second Heisman winner on its roster, Larry Kelly from Yale.

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Gonzalo Marroquin. Getty Images.

(Sorry… That's Kelly Kelly.)

And now here are 2 points about Larry Kelly…

1) He sold his trophy at an auction in December 1999 for $328,000 to the owner of The Stadium Museum, Restaurant & Bar in Garrison, New York, which had a SHITLOAD of other memorabilia (Paul Hornung’s 1956 Heisman, Mickey Mantle’s Triple Crown award) but shut down in 2017… So who the fuck knows where that Heisman is now?

2) And the second thing I want you to remember about Larry Kelly is that he may have been the second to win the Heisman,  and he’s certainly not the only winner to sell his trophy, but he was definitively the first Heisman winner to kill himself… On June 27, 2000, Kelley died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home. He was 85 at the time and in failing health.

And after exhaustive research, I learned that Larry Kelly is one of only two Heisman winners to take their own lives after Rashaan Salaam from the University of Colorado shot himself in the head in 2016.

John Leyba. Getty Images.

Sallam was only in his early 40s, and his death was chalked up to depression, some drug use, and possible CTE.

So while you spend the rest of the NFL off-season guessing whether or not Shedeur will make a better pro than Gardner Minishew, I wanted to give you this little blog about Heismans and Nazis and Presidents and suicides… So that you'll seem moderately more interesting to your stupid friends.

Take a report.

-Large

What I just told you about Berwanger, Ford, Kelly, and Sallam was 100% true, unlike some of the history you learned in school. So, I decided to set the records straight in the latest episode of Twisted History—The Twisted History of News and Myths.

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Give it a listen and learn that Napoleon wasn't that short, technically Rosa Parks did not attempt to sit in the front of that bus, and Paul Revere never shouted, "The British are coming!"

TAR

-L