The senior member of the Heisman Fraternity in the NFL — Jameis Winston — has developed quite the side hustle.
The 2013 Heisman winner has earned a strong following for his effervescent personality on the sidelines, with teammates and in front of the media and it is translating into more opportunities on camera.
Winston worked as a Fox Sports digital correspondent during the week of Super Bowl LIX in 2025, exploring New Orleans as it prepped to host the big game. He followed that with appearances on Fox Sports’ NFL studio shows, to equal success.
In March, Winston served as a commentator on Netflix’s debut MLB broadcast of the opening day game between the Yankees and the Giants, pulling on his time as a collegiate pitcher at Florida State.
Winston announced his latest assignment earlier this week with this video, letting friends, family and teammates know that he will work as a correspondent for Fox Sports again, this time during the network’s 2026 FIFA World Cup coverage.
Winston’s day job is still as an NFL QB. He remains the New York Giants back-up to Jaxson Dart as he prepares for the 2026 season under new coach John Harbaugh. But whenever Winston decides to hangup the cleats, he seems primed for an easy pivot into broadcasting.
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The most recent Heisman winner to play in the NFL remains 2024 recipient Travis Hunter, whose 2025 season was cut short due to a knee injury in November.
Jacksonville Jaguar staff have targeted training camp for Hunter’s healthy return and they anticipate a return to two-way play.
Regarding the offense-defense ratio, Jaguar GM James Gladstone recently said on the Rich Eisen Show: “He is set to play both sides of the ball. The piece that I think we can expect to see is actually an uptick in corner usage, right? Last year, it was a higher volume, a higher percentage of wide receiver usage than it was corner. I think we can expect that corner percentage and count go up. That’s not to say anything impacts his availability and usage on offense. It just means that that cornerback usage will increase.”
Jacksonville Head Coach Liam Coen added: “The plan has not changed at all, he’s going to play both sides of the football just as we drafted him to do. We have the same vision for him in terms of being able to give him those opportunities. Now is it day by day in terms of what he looks like in terms of process of rehab, absolutely. But the plan to play him on both sides of the ball as much as possible, that has absolutely stayed the same and stayed consistent. I think people look at, naturally, and see that Greg Newsome left, and that there’s a spot there that people are just plugging him into. Well, yeah, would love for him to play as much as humanly possible — on both sides of the ball.”
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The world missed a potential Hunter vs. Fernando Mendoza match-up by a season. Hunter transferred to Colorado in December of 2022 while Mendoza began at California in 2023.
While the schools were both in the Pac-12 in the conference’s final season in 2023, sadly the programs did not meet. By 2024, Mendoza and Cal were playing in the ACC while Hunter and the Buffs were in the Big 12.
But we’re getting off track.
Mendoza is in the nascent stages of his NFL career after being drafted first overall by the Las Vegas Raiders last month. And as we’ve mentioned on this site, the Raiders have a strong history with the Heisman.
Ten Heisman winners have worn the silver and black before Mendoza, who is the fifth Heisman winner drafted by the team.
A trio of Heisman winners — Tim Brown, Marcus Allen and Charles Woodson — have been giving Mendoza some encouragement after the draft.
Detailed HERE in a great piece on the Raiders website, the trio shared observations on Mendoza and had some wise words for him — and really for any player entering the league with huge expectations.
“It’s a personal pressure that you put on yourself,” said Woodson. “You just won the most prestigious award in college football; you’ve got to perform. You’ve got to live up to it.”
Brown met Mendoza during Heisman weekend in December and was immediately impressed.
“He’s just a real personable guy that wants to answer every question and give you a full answer for every question,” Brown said. “Not just, ‘We wanted to run this and run that’ but he goes into detail with his answers.
“He looks like a football player. It’s not his arm is super strong or he’s super athletic, but he seems to make very good choices. Seems to know when to run and when not to run. He just seems to be a football player, man.”
As for advice, Allen said: “You need guys in your corner and the best way to get that is go in and be a great teammate. Work your ass off and do everything you possibly can to be a success.”
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Finally, we’ll leave readers with this, a link to 2019 Heisman winner Joe Burrow attending the recent Met Gala with former LSU teammate Justin Jefferson. Now we need to see if his outfit comes in Bengal orange and black.