Vanderbilt football QB Diego Pavia in New York for Heisman ceremony
Diego Pavia is in New York for the Heisman ceremony on Dec. 12. He talked about some of the early highlights of the trip.
F me, eh Diego?
For the first time, I cast a Heisman Trophy ballot last week, and Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia didn’t like it.
“F all the voters,” he posted to Instagram in the wake of his runner-up finish for college football’s most prestigious award, and clearly, he was talking to me, because my ballot was a carbon copy of the eventual results he so despised. I’m heartbroken (not really), troubled (not at all), and disgusted (SARCASM) that a Heisman finalist would be so unsportsmanlike in finishing second. The Heisman Trust isn’t my trust, its trophy isn’t my trophy, and Pavia did a lot more to embarrass himself than any voter. Nor does his jackassery change my opinion that he was the second-best option for the award. My ballot:
- Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza
- Pavia
- Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love
Of course, the impetuous Pavia wasn’t just talking to me. “F all the voters,” would also include the 189 who placed him first on their ballots and actually believed he should win. F you guys, too, I suppose because there weren’t enough of you. But Pavia can’t be bothered with such nuance.
F the very deserving winner, the Hoosiers’ Mendoza, too, right Diego? He didn’t have a ballot, but by insulting the voters who chose him, you insulted Mendoza, too. You don’t think he had any business on that podium — nothing else can be construed from “F the voters.” That hug you gave him the moment his name was announced? That was fake. Clearly, you didn’t mean it.
Never mind that Mendoza led Indiana to a 13-0 season, with head-to-head wins over other Heisman threats such as Oregon QB Dante Moore, and Ohio State QB Julian Sayin in the Big Ten title game. Never mind that he threw 33 touchdown passes to helm the No. 1 seed in the entire College Football Playoff, because you were better, right? Never mind that he’ll be in Pasadena preparing for a CFP quarterfinal while you’re in Tampa preparing to play Iowa in front of a bunch of empty ReliaQuest Bowl seats.
The reflexive defense of Pavia, of course, will be “he’s just a kid blowing off steam.”
Let’s make a slight correction to that: he’s no kid at 23 years old, and just a couple months shy of 24.
Had this been the 19-year-old Johnny Manziel — a Pavia confidant, by the way — an “F all the voters” post on social media would’ve at least been less surprising, if no less classless. But after six years in college, you’d think Pavia would’ve signed up for at least one course in humility by now. The kid-blows-off-steam defense also fails to hold up when one considers the dozens of kids who didn’t; decades worth of disappointed Heisman finalists who managed to leave New York City without leaving behind their dignity like Pavia did.
He’s a big boy now. Old enough to have more than one college degree. Old enough to beat the NCAA in court to gain extra eligibility, and old enough to make the pile of NIL money that came with that.
Old enough to know better.
And old enough to handle some criticism.
It was a punk move, Diego. This voter wasn’t sitting right next to Mendoza Saturday night, but my congrats for him are at least genuine.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
