Johnny Manziel, a household name, is making his mark in the National Football League (NFL), good and bad. Manziel, aka Johny Football, is one of the three quarterbacks who is fighting for the starting position for the Cleveland Browns. Though Brian Hoyer has been named the week one starter, Manziel hopes to become the starter for later weeks to come.
Johnny Football attended Texas A&M from 2011 to 2013. In the 2012 season, he won the Heisman trophy as a redshirt freshman. This means he was a freshman in college the year before, but the football team redshirted him in order for him to develop better skills that season. Texas A&M’s coach, Kevin Sumlin, red shirt tactics worked well. Manziel completed 68 percent of his passes throwing for 3,706 yards and 26 touchdowns his 2012 season. He tacked on 1,410 rushing yards and 21 rush touchdowns to go with his passing numbers. These numbers helped him win the Heisman, a trophy which goes to the most prestigious college football player each season.
The 2013 offseason brought speculation to the table on whether Manziel would be able to return to the team or not. Manziel had been caught signing autographs for money, which is against NCAA rules. This is where many believe Manziel “stupidity” began. Later in the year, the NCAA came to the conclusion that Manziel did not receive money for the autographs and suspended him for only the first half of Texas A&M’s season opener vs. Rice. His 2013 statistics compared well with his 2012 stats. Manziel completed roughly 70 percent of his passes throwing for 4,114 yards and 37 touchdowns. While the passing totals went up, the rushing totals depleted. He ran for 759 yards and 9 rushing touchdowns, given he attempted to run the ball 57 more times in 2012 than 2013.
Manziel’s personal college life was were he made headlines. Even though he was playing some of the best football, he was still on SportsCenter for what he was doing wrong. In June 2012, Manziel was arrested, which was right before he was named starter for his college for disorderly conduct, failure to identify, and possession of a fictitious driver’s license. Coach Sumlin had to regain Manziel’s trust after this incident in order to start him. After this incident,the autographing event and many more problems continued to arise with Manziel. Another reason the media blew up in the 2013 offseason was when Manziel “over slept” at the Manning Passing Academy. This is an event held by the Manning family where they develop young players into better quarterbacks, receivers, and running backs. Manziel was asked to leave as a counselor because he did not attend the morning session. Many believe he was too hungover from the night before and did not attend on purpose.
When asked about his stance on Manziel, Brad Barfield, senior, said, “Honestly, Manziel is a great player and a great player. Everything just got blown out of proportion. He doesn’t deserve all the haters.”
With all the media on Manziel, he must realize he has to be more careful. He was drafted 22 in the 2014 draft by the Browns. Another incident occurred when Manziel decided to “flip the bird” to the Washington Redskins bench during a preseason game. As people can imagine, this put Johnny Football in the spotlight again for the wrong reason.
Manziel will be competing for the starting spot, but attitude and character are something coaches take into account so he will have to sharpen up before he gets to start.
