Johnny Manziel and Misperception

Once again, it seems the college football world has been set ablaze with the incendiary lifestyle of the reigning Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel.

It seems like every time I log on to the overstimulated world wide web and look at college football news, either twitter or Yahoo Sports is on fire with “johnny football news.”

But, really, let’s look at what we have seen recently… he was kicked out of a frat party. At Texas A&M’s former Big 12 rival the University of Texas. Ummmm, so what!

What would you expect? If LaMichael James had been kicked out of an Oregon State frat party, would Duck fans care? NO! In fact, they’d probably be bragging about it becuase what Duck fan wants to think of James being too cordial with Beaver fans? I mean, really, this is news? Why? Because the Manziel won the Heisman Trophy? Slow news week indeed!

The reality is that, with the exception of a bar fight with origins that might be into a very uncomfortable racial area, what has Manziel done that has been that terrible? Nothing.

So he got frustrated with something that happened in College Station. Haven’t we all had frustrations with the towns we live in at times? I have. I’ll bet Tyson Coleman and Kiko Alonso have had some frustrations with Eugene at times. As have a multitude of other Duck athletes.

The difference? Manziel is willing to express his frustrations publicly. And for those expressions of frustration, people like Paul Finebaum gladly rip him into oblivion with their, supposed, unbiased platforms. Don’t kid yourselves, though, there is no such thing as an unbiased opinion.

Paul Finebaum is one of the biggest “honks” for his team that exists in traditional media. When Texas A&M was in the Big 12, Finebaum spent about 0.3 milliseconds caring about the exploits of their players. But the moment that they entered into Alabama…err, SEC territory, then he cared. And, had the Aggies not beaten the Crimson Tide AT Alabama, he probably would have only given a fraction more time to Manziel and the Aggies. But the Aggies beat ‘Bama and Finebaum has been on the rampage ever since.

Manziel is actually a very humble, respectful, well spoken and decent young man. I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with him in Beaverton where he had been a mentor during the Elite 11 Camp. He was personable and has an exceptional memory. He remembered A.J Jacobson from the time he had attended camp at Oregon and A.J had been covering it for Duck Sports Authority.

Manziel, like all 19 and 20 year old young men has made his share of simple mistakes. The problem is that in today’s world, the things we say as innocuous quips are suddenly broadcast throughout the world.

Had some of the comments I made in passing to my Marine Corps roommate been of the twitter variety, who knows how much embarrassment I might have suffered.

I have said it about Duck players and reiterate regarding Manziel; we expect too much of these young men. They are, after all, still just 19 and 20 year old boys with minds that have not been fully developed.

To expect them to always comport themselves as we would at 40 plus years of age is an unreasonable expectation. 

And, honestly, what do we care? A 20 year old kid says stupid things. This is a surprise? I think that says more about you than about Johnny Manziel.