NEW YORK — By the winter of 2017, Justin Herbert had already established himself as an elite football player and student at the University of Oregon.
Herbert, a native of Eugene, won the starting quarterback position for the Ducks as a true freshman, and was 6-2 as the starter during a sophomore season interrupted by injury. He was also named an academic all-American in that fall of 2017.
It was around that time that Oregon director of athletics Rob Mullens bumped into Steve Hatchell, president of the National Football Foundation. Among the duties of the NFF is to award the William V.