‘FOOTBALL’ FOLLIES: Texas A&M quarterback won’t have a chance to become the second back-to-back Heisman Trophy winner because of his off-field, offseason problems, (
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Johnny Manziel lawyered up this week, making it a virtual certainty the Texas A&M quarterback won’t become the second back-to-back Heisman Trophy winner in history.
It’s not as if the kid doesn’t need and deserve an attorney. Lord knows with the NCAA’s record of unconscionable investigative tactics, Manziel needs legal advice as much as a quarterback needs a solid offensive line.
The NCAA, according to ESPN reports, is investigating Manziel, who reportedly was paid for signing autographs on two occasions, which is an impermissible benefit under NCAA rules. Manziel doesn’t need the money, not the way some family in Detroit struggling to make ends meet in a bankrupt city does.
Manziel’s family is as comfortable financially as it is uncomfortable with what it perceives as slights, or flat-out lies, by Texas A&M, the school for which Manziel totaled 5,107 yards from scrimmage and 47 touchdowns passing and rushing last season.
The school has made money off Manziel. His coach, Kevin Sumlin, got a raise off Manziel. Manziel got headaches, some self-induced.
Manziel took to Twitter like Michael Phelps took to water. He tweeted pictures of himself at a casino. He tweeted his desire to get out of College Station, Texas.
Johnny Manziel, “Johnny Football” as he’s known, has 471,602 Twitter followers which makes him an Internet rock star. It’s loud in Johnny’s world — very, very loud.
Manziel managed to slip out of his Twitter blunders like he’s able to avoid direct hits — it’s an art.
But the signing of about 300 autographs, for which Manziel reportedly was paid $7,500, might not be wiped clean by hitting the delete key.
The five power conferences have made it clear they want better enforcement of NCAA rules, and the governing body of sports needs to prove it has some investigative prowess, so Manziel might find himself suspended for a game or a season or asked to make restitution.
Or he could be found to have committed no violation— that he is a wonderfully altruistic young man who just wanted to sign hundreds of mini helmets in Connecticut at the Walter Camp Football Foundation awards ceremony to give to little boys in his home state of Texas who dream of being the next Johnny Football.
Texas A&M hired an attorney. Manziel hired an attorney. The NCAA spends a ton of money on attorneys’ fees.
Welcome to the new reality of college athletics.
Yet one old-school truth holds: Repeating in sports is harder than trying to stop a New York City parking enforcement officer from writing a ticket.
Repeating requires focus and commitment and hard work and a minimum of distractions.
Nick Saban, who has coached Alabama to back-to-back national titles, refers to distractions as “noise.”
There wasn’t much noise coming out of Tuscaloosa this offseason. When quarterback A.J. McCarron was asked to weigh in on Manziel’s sudden departure from the Manning Passing Academy, he deflected that question the way he would look off a freshman safety.
“I can’t answer any questions on Johnny Manziel’s part,’’ McCarron said at SEC media day. “Everything that has do with him, you know, he’s his own man. I don’t worry about another man’s business — that’s how I was raised.’’
Rumor has it even Saban smiled at that response.
McCarron is a Heisman Trophy candidate, largely because he has quarterbacked Alabama to those two titles.
Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller is a candidate after leading his team to a 12-0 record last season.
South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney is a candidate because he’s the best defensive player in the country and he made “The Hit,” a helmet-ejecting drone strike on Michigan’s Vincent Smith in the Outback Bowl that has been viewed over 4 million times on YouTube.
Manziel became the first freshman to win the Heisman last season and he earned it. But since then, Manziel has jacked up the noise around him like a grunge club DJ.
His lawyer, Jim Darnell, has stated he expects Manziel to be the Aggies’ starting quarterback on Aug. 31 for the season opener against Rice. The Manziel family has issued a statement saying neither Johnny nor other family members would comment on the autograph issue.
Manziel made himself a Heisman Trophy frontrunner last season when he led the Aggies to a 27-21 upset of the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa. This season the Aggies will host Alabama on Sept. 14 in what will be the most hyped game in the modern era of Texas A&M football.
On that day, a focused Alabama team will remove a distracted Manziel from Heisman consideration. Manziel has lawyered up. The noise level is deafening.