Sports USA Radio

By Brian Golden

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- Ronnie Lott left a trail of running backs, receivers and quarterbacks in tears and  pain along a path of punishment leading to both the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame.

But on April 15, at his annual luncheon to announce the Watch List for the Lott Trophy, it was the greatest defensive back ever to play the game who was fighting back tears.

Lott asked Adam Allen, a Make-A-Wish child whose dream of meeting his hero, Green Bay Packers receiver Donald Driver, was aided greatly by the Pacific Club IMPACT Foundation, to join him at the front of the ballroom.

He also asked Clifton Alexander, one of five Haitian orphan brothers and sisters adopted by onetime NFL star Kermit Alexander and his wife, to join him. The foundation supported the Alexanders in their quest of nearly six years that ironically was aided by the horrific January earthquake in Haiti, to adopt Clifton and his entire family.

"It's so powerful to see the work of the IMPACT Foundation like this," Lott said, the powerful hands that stopped many a ball carrier in his tracks draped lovingly over the two boys' shoulders. "This is making an impact in life, for life.

"It makes me even prouder to be associated with this award and this group in the IMPACT Foundation."

In only six years of existence, the Lott Trophy has awarded more than $760,000 to colleges, universities and charities.

Lott chuckled when I suggested the glory of the Lott Trophy is that it's as much about what you do FOR people off the field, as what you do TO them on it.

The Lott Trophy is the first major college football award to be determined as much  by personal character traits as on-field heroics.

The USC and San Francisco 49ers legend is as proud of 2009 finalists Rolando McClain of Alabama,  Ndamukong Suh of Nebraska, Eric Berry of Tennessee and winner Jerry Hughes of TCU being outstanding students and eager community volunteers as he is of the fact they'll all be taken in the first round of the National Football League Draft.

If not more.

"Meeting Clifton and Adam today inspires me to want the Lott Trophy and the IMPACT Foundation to do even more," Lott said. "There are no words to describe the kind of good football players and football fans can do like we've seen with Adam and Clifton today.

"I know the economy is tough. But those of us who are blessed to play this game and watch it and love it so much, we owe it to the Cliftons and Adams of this world to dig down a little deeper in our hearts and in our wallets."

All you need to do is spend five minutes with Ronnie Lott to realize this proud son of his mother and father in Rialto, Calif. was a Hall of Famer as a man long before he ever laced on a pair of shoulder pads.

It has been a honor and privilege to produce the Lott Trophy IMPACT Player of the Week segment these last two seasons.

The audible tones of awe, and maybe a little reverence, in the voices of college football's greatest defensive stars confirm the thesis I took away from covering Ronnie Lott's entire National Football League career as a newspaperman.

For all Ronnie Lott has given the game, and his countrymen, we are going to say thank you by establishing the Lott Trophy as College Football's Defensive Heisman.

Here's the list of 42 players we'll be watching -- and often listening for on the College Football Game of the Week on Sports USA -- this coming season:

  SAM ACHO, DL, Texas
  AKEEM AYERS, LB, UCLA
  MARK BARRON, S, Alabama
  JEREMY BEAL, DE, Oklahoma
  BRANDON BOYKIN, S, Georgia
  RASHAD CARMICHAEL, CB, Virginia
  UGO CHINASA, DE, Oklahoma State
  JARED CRICK, DL, Nebraska
  BRIAN DUNCAN, LB, Texas Tech
  JOHN GRAVES, DE, Virginia Tech
  MARK HERZLICH, LB, Boston College
  CAMERON HEYWARD, DT, Ohio State
  ROSS HOMAN, LB, Ohio State
  JERON JOHNSON, S, Boise State
  TEJAY JOHNSON, S, TCU
  A.J. JONES, LB, Florida
  GREG JONES, LB, Michigan State
  THOMAS KEISER, DE, Stanford
  RYAN KERRIGAN, DL, Purdue
  CASEY MATTHEWS, LB, Oregon
  CLIFF MATTHEWS,  DE, South Carolina
  BRIAN McNARY, DE, Army
  WYATT MIDDLETON, S, Navy
  VON MILLER, DE/LB, Texas A&M
  DONTAY MOCH, DE, Nevada
  MIKE MOHAMED, LB, California
  RAHIM MOORE, S, UCLA
  STEPHEN PAEA, DT, Oregon State
  PATRICK PETERSON, CB, LSU
  ROBERT QUINN, DE, North Carolina
  ANDREW RICH, S, BYU
  GREG ROMEUS, DL, Pittsburgh
  KENNY ROWE, DE/LB,  Oregon
  TYLER SASH, DB, Iowa
  KELVIN SHEPPARD, LB, LSU
  MALCOLM SMITH, LB, USC
  J.T. THOMAS, LB, West Virginia
  JJ WATT, DE, Wisconsin
  DEUNTA WILLIAMS, S, North Carolina
  LAWRENCE WILSON, S, Connecticut
  ALEX WOJCIAK, LB, Maryland
  ANTHONY WRIGHT, CB, Air Force