I have no problem with Johnny Manziel living the life. I have no problem with him enjoying it. We’d all take the fame, publicity, girls, fun, parties, perks etc. if we were in his position. And let’s not forget, he’s only 20 years old. When I was 20, they didn’t even have MySpace yet. I’d shudder to think about TwitPics and Instagrams of my U of I days.
However, I was always smart enough not to get caught. Johnny Manziel seems to have a problem with this concept. Manziel doesn’t seem to be a very good liar. He doesn’t seem to be all that intelligent. And some of the excuses Johnny Manziel feeds us plainly insult our own intelligence. Either he’s just a horrible decision maker, or thinks he doesn’t have to be accountable. Or both.
No NFL team is going to invest tens of millions into a franchise quarterback who exhibits those characteristics.
The story surrounding Johnny Manziel’s dismissal from the Manning Passing Academy keeps developing.
Rumors and Rants – the site who first broke the news – had a follow up today which conveyed how Johnny Manziel was spotted out on Bourbon Street at 4 a.m. the night before his “cell phone battery died” and he simply “overslept and missed a meeting.” Of course, the cell phone alarm not going off and sleeping in past a meeting, is different from the original Manziel alibi that he had to come home due to exhaustion and dehydration. So already we have an evolving alibi, conflicting excuses.
According to the sources at Rumors and Rants, all the camp counselors “party” (i.e. underage drink) at night. Which again is fine, cuz we all “partied” (i.e. illegally drank alcohol) when we were that age in the summer. It’s just that everyone else recovers and gets up and performs the duties expected of them the next day. Johnny Manziel seemed to have a problem with this. It’s kind of like the really dumb post-sorority girl now in her 30s who’s out in Wrigleyville getting bombed on the weekend and then complains about how horrible her morning is the next day.
If you wanna binge drink that’s fine, but you have to accept the consequences with your body and your obligations the next day. Don’t want to be hungover? Hey, don’t get drunk. Johnny Manziel wasn’t woken up by his roommate, Alabama Quarterback A.J. McCarron, because apparently Manziel spent the night somewhere other than his room. He also wasn’t late for just this meeting, he was late for or missed all of the meetings. And now we learn that it was Dartmouth head coach Buddy Teevens who is said to have convinced Archie Manning to send Manziel home.
So it was Archie Manning, no wait it was Teevens, well, that’s actually minutia here. The point is, as R&R pointed out, Manning new what was going on, and gave Johnny Manziel a chance to come clean. He did not, so Archie had the final say so in dismissing Manziel from the camp. Anyways, here’s a good summation from Rumors and Rants:
As a child of privilege — he is the fourth generation in a family of Texas oil money — chances are Manziel hasn’t faced many serious consequences for his actions growing up. Being a star quarterback at a Texas high school, then at A&M, and then the first freshman quarterback to win the Heisman has only enhanced his ability to “get away with it.”
In the NFL, they don’t care who your daddy is. Actions will have consequences. He can still have a good time like anybody else his age, but if he thinks he can get away with lying about things like his whereabouts on Bourbon Street to someone with as many powerful New Orleans connections as Archie Manning, he either needs to get a lot smarter or a lot humbler. Maybe a little bit of both.
Otherwise, he’ll learn the NFL is a No Fools League the hard way.
So did Johnny Manziel lie to all 1,200 credentialed media at SEC Media Day?
As well as all the people watching at home on ESPN? Well, he told half-truths, omitted a big portion of the story, deliberately misled everyone, had multiple alibis that didn’t add up, so if that’s your definition of lying, then yes Johnny Manziel pretty much lied.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An analyst for 95.7 The Fan, he also writes on Chicago sports media for Chicago Now. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)
