Johnny Manziel Glad to be Out of the Judgmental Spotlight. When the press was good, he loved running to it like a moth to an outdoor light.
After bursting onto the scene for his ‘crazy’ lifestyle at Texas A&M and partying with Drake, Johnny Manziel claims that his life is now “about 95 percent football.”
Not sure where he’s getting those numbers, but I guess when half the nation thinks your last name is actually Football no one will really question you.
Since his release from rehab, Manziel has been very under the radar, something he hasn’t enjoyed since he led the miraculous victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide en route to winning the Heisman Trophy. As the stories of his drinking and going out with friends piled up, so did the attention. Everyone either loved Johnny Football or they thought he was the biggest disgrace to sports since the Black Sox Scandal of 1919. There was next to no one that didn’t have an opinion on the kid.
Personally, I loved him. He was fantastic on the field with the Aggies, and he couldn’t care less about what you thought about his lifestyle. He was basically a big middle finger to the media and everyone else who said he needed to calm down (and literally to the Washington Redskins bench). He was one of the most famous people in America, but he was still a college kid, and old people just hated it.
That aside, I’m glad he has started to shape up in the pros. It’s one thing to go to a strip club with Drake when you’re averaging four touchdowns a game, but when you quarterback one of the worst single games in NFL history, it’s time to get back to football.
Well, Manziel is lucky enough and cursed to play with the Cleveland Browns for that very reason. On the one hand, the Browns suck and good luck turning that team into something. After a fantastic start, the coaching staff allowed the team and quarterbacks to regress to Jr. Varsity levels.
On the other hand, this gives Manziel the opportunity to go incognito and get back to his football roots during the season.
“The hype is a little bit tempered and a little bit down, and that for me is a good thing,” said Manziel. “Now I can just come out and play and do my game and really get to learn, because that’s what I really needed to do is to learn.”
That’s right, even Manziel couldn’t make people outside of Cleveland care about Browns football for more than one season.
“Off the field for me right now is just really simple. It’s football right now, and it’ll be that way throughout the rest of the season.”
Good luck, Mr. Football.