Johnny Manziel kissing Heisman Trophy

Johnny Manziel won the Heisman Trophy in 2012. The new version of the Lombardi Award wants to make sure the next Manziel doesn't win it.

(Henny Ray Abrams, AP)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The boozing quarterback in the Scooby-Doo outfit? Yeah, this isn't for him.

A college football award Johnny Manziel wasn't even eligible to win when he played at Texas A&M is now changing its criteria, and explaining it this way:

Johnny Manziel couldn't win it.

Previously awarded to the best offensive lineman, defensive lineman or linebacker in the country, the Lombardi Award will now be open to all players. Sort of like the Heisman Trophy.

The announcement was made Thursday in Houston, the home of the award, and sports broadcaster Spencer Tillman explained the new Lombardi this way at the announcement of the change.

"If someone were to push me in a corner and ask me, 'What's the difference between this award and the Heisman Trophy award?' I would tell you this. The difficult truth is a Tim Tebow could have won this award, but a Johnny Manziel could not have won this award. That's the difference," Tillman said.

The Lombardi Award is named for coaching legend Vince Lombardi and Tillman (in a video of the announcement sent to me by the Lombardi Award public relations people on request) emphasized the power that comes with that name.

That name is something. Ask the NFL.

Still, sticking with what had been the most prestigious lineman award in the nation (current Brown Carl Nassib won last year, while Ohio State's Joey Bosa was a finalist) would have seemed to make sense. But Tillman said this was about evolution, acknowledging the obvious question of why change at all.

So the award will evolve -- and attempt to legislate behavior.

It's a college football award from a Rotary club, and it can do whatever it wants. But the group may be heading down a sticky path as it talks of using an algorithm to determine exactly what bad behavior gets a player excluded from winning.

* What about a drunken-driving arrest, like Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett had last year?

* What about rape accusations, like those directed at Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston, who won the Heisman in 2013 soon after it was announced no charges would be filed in the case?

* What about a player suspended for one game over a violation of team rules? Are the Lombardi people going to confirm whether that violation was a failed drug test, academic problems or a fight with a teammate in practice? If they do, how are those weighed?

* What about Notre Dame linebacker Manto Te'o, whose supposedly dead girlfriend was revealed to be a hoax a month after he finished second in the 2012 Heisman voting to Manziel.

And about that Manziel Heisman win ...

When he took home the trophy in December of 2012 as a redshirt freshman, here's what we knew about Manziel, for sure.

* He wore a Scooby Doo costume for Halloween (Google that if you need a refresher.)

* He flashed a fake ID after he was part of a fight and was charged by police with disorderly conduct and two misdemeanors.

This isn't to say that all these transgressions mentioned here are equal. Not at all. But Tillman mentioned that "algorithm" to determine the off-field component of the award and why a player might be excluded. Tillman said it would "ferret out players with bad histories."

Behavior determined by math? You wonder how that will work.

The Lombardi isn't the first award to include a character component. For instance, the Lott IMPACT Trophy bases its criteria for its best defensive player award on character and performance.

The Heisman itself would probably quibble with the idea that it's only about football. There's a line in the mission statement about the "pursuit of excellence with integrity." Many voters did struggle with ballots in 2013 when deciding how to view the accusations against Winston, and whether those accusations would lead to charges and what that should mean for voting.

Maybe there's something admirable about what the Lombardi is doing. Tillman said the Lombardi is taking on the responsibility of emphasizing a character component in part because college football coaches aren't challenging their players on character issues.

So a block of granite trophy, backed by an unknown math equation, will accept that role.

"That's the difference between this award and any other award out there," Tillman said.

It's their award. They can bestow it how they see it. But one award shifting its purpose to fill this role is either a presumptuous overreach, or a tiny ripple in a pool of college football exploitation.

The Lombardi before was a nice award. This is trying to be something else.

Nobody wants to give any awards to the current Johnny Manziel. But guess what - Scooby-Doo Manziel from 2012 probably would have won it. Unless the algorithm includes "dog costume."