Johnny Football
A three-year-old throwing a temper tantrum/ image: jesusonsports.wordpress.com
Article: Brady Lang – Sports Writer
The NCAA’s resident badass
Needless to say, Texas A & M star quarterback Johnny Manziel lives every college students dream. The fame, the women, the booze, and the money – Manziel has it all.
For any fan of Spike’s famous show Blue Mountain State, Manziel is essentially a real life Alex Moran. The thing is, Moran never made money off of football at his times at BMS, meanwhile Manziel found himself in a delicate situation earlier this summer when he violated the NCAA rule 12.5.22.
Unless you spend all of your time locked up in your dorm studying NCAA bylaws and rules I will jog your memory:
According to the NCAA rule book, “If a student-athlete’s name or picture appears on commercial items (e.g., T-shirts, sweatshirts, serving trays, playing cards, posters) or is used to promote a commercial product sold by an individual or agency without the student-athlete’s knowledge or permission, the student-athlete (or the institution acting on behalf of the student-athlete) is required to take steps to stop such an activity in order to retain his or her eligibility for intercollegiate athletics.”
To explain in simpler terms Manziel – or as he has been infamously dubbed “Johnny Football” – was paid by memorabilia dealers to sign pictures and miscellaneous Texas A & M souvenirs of himself. Even though the NCAA couldn’t prove this, they handed down a whopping half-game suspension on the defending Heisman Trophy winner.
Yeah, a half-game for the defending Heisman winner, the best player in college football. Really, that’s it?
So why didn’t the NCAA punish Manziel to the maximum extent? Maybe because the NCAA makes an incredible amount of money on him as they do on every college star.
Manziel’s twitter account, @JManziel2, is followed by upwards of 530,000 people and includes pictures of him with stars from all over the world. Johnny Football has reached superstar status and the 20-year-old sophomore hasn’t even played a down in the NFL.
In June, Manziel hinted that he will declare for the NFL’s 2014 draft but nothing has been set in stone as of now. He’ll have to settle for a superstar quality life that every College or University student would trade for in a heartbeat.
Golfing with the Jonas Brothers, sleeping through the Manning’s Passing Academy, hanging out with L.A. Clippers star Chris Paul, front court seats to the Lakers games and meeting up with Duck Dynasty’s Robertson brothers will have to suffice for this upcoming season.
It’s weird how the media has Manziel on a pedestal just because of his personal life and the way he enjoys himself in college – something we all do.
Manziel isn’t always the bad ass that the NCAA and the American media portray him to be.
Earlier this year, Manziel and former Heisman winner John David Crow signed numerous pieces of memorabilia for Texas A & M – legally, of course, this time – that were auctioned off with the proceeds going to scholarships for the school. They raised approximately $81,600 and Manziel was praised for his loyalty to the school.
As long as he sets his alarm clock for the appropriate time and doesn’t party too hard, Manziel should be a star in the NFL. He is definitely a player to watch this upcoming season in College football and will be watched under a scrutinized eye because of some of his antics. Let’s just hope Manziel does pan out in the NFL so he doesn’t end up like a Tim Tebow or a CFL quarterback. But, if you’re interested Johnny, I hear Montreal has an opening.
