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Melvin Gordon talked with Campus Lore at the NFL Pro Bowl in late January. He spoke about how the Wisconsin football program prepared him for the NFL and altered the trajectory of his life and career.
Gordon also spoke about the atmosphere at Wisconsin football games, saying, “If you have never been to a Badger game, you need to go, especially a night game when they do the Jump Around. The Jump Around is the most FIRES thing in college football, NFL football… the Jump Around is just crazy, man. I love it. It’s the best part about Wisconsin, man.”
Melvin Gordon had one of the greatest seasons in the history of college football in 2014, when he rushed for over 2,500 yards and scored 29 rushing touchdowns plus three receiving touchdowns. Gordon finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting to Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota. Gordon led Wisconsin to multiple Big Ten division championships plus the 2012 Big Ten Championship Game victory over Nebraska.
Gordon accumulated over 5,000 total yards in his career at Wisconsin, just over 4,900 rushing. He scored 45 rushing touchdowns as a Badger and four more as a receiver. Gordon has since produced a strong NFL career with the San Diego-turned-Los Angeles Chargers, accumulating over 4,200 rushing yards to this point in his career, gaining over 1,100 yards in the 2017 NFL season. Gordon has scored 47 NFL touchdowns, 36 rushing and 11 receiving, becoming a weapon and trusted teammate for quarterback Philip Rivers, who will now leave the Chargers and place Gordon’s career in a new stage of uncertainty.
Melvin Gordon owns a pronounced love for Wisconsin football, something which will never fade away. Regardless of where his NFL path leads — and it might lead to a new team very soon, in one form or another — his travels as a professional football player will never change the fact that his years in Madison were formative and, beyond that, transformative as well. Melvin Gordon is a Badger for life, a treasured member of the Wisconsin community and a football icon in Badger lore.