On December 3 2001 2001 Heisman winner Eric Crouch
Eric Crouch’s Heisman Trophy rests in the basement of his suburban Omaha home. And when we say “rests,” we mean “rests.” The trophy remains in the box in which it arrived after he won it in 2001. “It’s in good condition that way,” the former Nebraska quarterback said. “I’m not a person who displays things about my career. It’s with the rest of my history. If you come over to my house, you won’t even know I played football.” About the only attention the Heisman gets is when the friends of Crouch’s daughter, Alexi, 10, and son, Carsen, 5, show up on the doorstep and ask to see it. “I tell the neighborhood kids, ‘Come on in. Take a look at it,'” Crouch said. “At first, I told them $20 each, go home and tell your parents to ante up,” he said with a laugh. “We’re friends with the parents of our kids’ friends.” Crouch said he turns down many more requests to make speeches and appear at autograph signings than he accepts. He is a husband and a dad and has a hand in two businesses. He’ll be a legend some other time. “I don’t take the trophy out,” Crouch said. Well, there was the one sowing of wild oats. Like a quiet bachelor who leaves town and heads to Vegas where no one knows him, Crouch’s Heisman has led a second life. “I let Johnny Rodgers have it once,” Crouch said, referring to his fellow Cornhusker who won the Heisman 29 years before Crouch. “I think he was having an autograph signing and some kind of function. It came back with Silly String and red and silver confetti stuck to it. It looked like it had a greater night than I ever had with it.” Crouch’s Heisman neither admits nor denies anything.
— Ivan Maisel
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