The Heisman has declared another winner, but did anyone bother to watch the ceremony?

Among the missed newspaper gimmicks — other than newspapers themselves — is the “Heisman Watch.” This was a weekly rating of who might win the big college football prize, less big now than then. Both the “watch” and the Heisman are relics of kinder times.

The Heisman has since become a TV event, much as the NFL draft has, trying to build suspense into monotony, the winner no surprise to anyone who had followed the weekly watch.

I take it on faith that when this year’s anointed group — Colorado’s receiver/defender Travis Hunter, quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel of Oregon and Cam Ward of Miami, along with running back Ashton Jeanty of Boise State — were assembled to represent the best of the bunch, someone was watching.

Not that these moments certify anything beyond a page for the scrapbook, because the Heisman Trophy guarantees nothing more than future scoffing and second guessing.

The fact that Caleb Williams was a Heisman winner becomes mislaid among the real concerns about his ability to succeed in the NFL. He has, after all, lost seven games in a row and cost the jobs of two Bears coaches.

Once a Heisman “watcher” as well as a Heisman voter, I took my obligation seriously, though to my recollection I never voted for a single Heisman winner in the 19 years I was watching and voting.

That may be why without explanation I was uninvited to continue, or maybe it was that my last vote for Heisman went to Ndamukong Suh, a defensive tackle at Nebraska, instead of for Mark Ingram, a running back at Alabama.

Each had notable careers in the NFL, but I had violated an unwritten decree — never vote for anyone who cannot strike the Heisman pose. Being able to imagine any lug of a lineman standing on one leg and sticking out one arm at the same time must be disqualifying.

Looking back on my choices, I do remember Orlando Pace, an offensive lineman, and Jim McMahon, too, though he never said thanks. My most assured vote was for Peyton Manning, who lost to cornerback Charles Woodson of Michigan.

This century 20 quarterbacks have won, from the worst (Johnny Manziel) to the best (Lamar Jackson) with the jury still out on Williams and last year’s winner, Jayden Daniels.

There has been a whole lot of unwise anointing of mediocrity when a couple simple rules should be followed, the first of which is, do not ever consider the best player in college football to be a quarterback.

The second is, look at the trophy. It is a guy carrying the football. Appropriately, 44 running backs have won.

Among the original designs for the Heisman Trophy was one of a player tackling another. It was classic, contact football, equally depicting offense and defense. It was the favorite of the designer, 20-year-old Frank Eliscu.

Eliscu thought the pose the Downtown Athletic Club selected, the single, stiff-arming runner, looked too much like a doll, and Eliscu was a sculptor, not a toy maker.

Still, $500 was a lot of money in 1935, so Eliscu, and the Heisman sentiment that followed, favored the guy on offense.

Of the 89 winners going into Saturday night’s event, 38 had been quarterbacks, and only five — and I’m throwing Doug Flutie in there, mostly because he doesn’t weigh too much — have justified the honor.

The greatest of these is very likely Jim Plunkett, though I won’t argue with Roger Staubach or Johnny Lujack. The best quarterbacks seem to be picked from the pile, late treasures like Tom Brady and Joe Montana.

The argument that Heisman votes are for college players and not for future pros is often made, ignoring the fact that future pros are exactly what college players are.

If anyone bothered to give a prize to the next great rocket scientist, they would give it to the guy whose rocket they would ride in. I would never get into any rocket made by Gino Torretta.

There are no clear rules for choosing a Heisman winner. It is left up to more than 900 voters and almost all of them are newspaper writers. The real challenge might be to pick a Heisman winner before the nation runs out of newspapers.