Texas A & M sophomore quarterback Johnny Manziel was the toast of Manhattan last December when he became the first freshman ever to win the Heisman Trophy.
Now, he looks like more like burnt toast after reports began surfacing on ESPN Sunday night that the NCAA is investigating a story that he accepted a flat five figure fee to sign hundreds of autographs in Miami prior to the BCS national championship game. Manziel isn’t talking and Texas A & M has suddenly made him unavailable to the media tomorrow.
But the kid has an huge image problem and the negative facts are piling up. In the past month, Manziel was asked to leave the Manning Passing Academy for reportedly over sleeping and missing a meeting with young athletes after a night of partying. Then, there was the incident in Austin the following week when he was tossed out of a frat’ party at the U of Texas.
Manziel enjoyed his celebrity status but now it’s time to grow up before his life and A & M’s dream season turn into a train wreck.
Manziel jumped into the national consciousness when Johnny Football led the Aggies to a stunning 29-24 upset victory over defending national champion Alabama in Tuscaloosa and subsequently solidified his legend during a 41-13 rout of Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day. Leading the Aggies to a spectacular 11-2 season in its first year in the SEC, Manziel threw for 3,706 yards and rushed for 1,410 and accounted for 47 touchdowns.
But that is yesterday’s news.
What’s new today is that unnamed sources says they watched watched Manziel sign autographs on a number of different items for a broker named Drew Tieman and was paid a fee for his work, which, if true, would put him in violation of an NCCA bylaw 12.5.2.1 and could jeopardize his eligibility. The bylaw states that an athlete is not eligible for participation in intercollegiate athletics if he or she: “a. Accepts any remuneration for or permits the use of his or her name or picture to advertise, recommend or promote directly the sale or use of a commercial product or service of any kind, or b. Receives remuneration for endorsing a commercial product or service through the individual’s use of such product or service.”
The ESPN report said Manziel was approached by Tieman and agreed to sign hundreds of footballs, mini-football helmets and photos at Tieman’s residence. The report stated that memorabilia dealers said they were flooded with a number of Manziel products after BCS title game.
If the reports have any credence and Manziel is ruled ineligible, college football’s early season Game of the Year between A & M and Alabama Sept. 14 in College Station could lose a lot of its hype and CBS could lose potentially enormous TV ratings
Actually, we should have seen this one coming.
Manziel has become a victim of his success. He is the big man on campus but in the world of 24/7 social media, he is now constantly under surveillance. He’s been spotted at a Drake concert, trying to get Tiger Woods’ autograph; in the front row at the Miami Heat game and playing golf at Pebble Beach. He’s made appearances on late night TV, dated a model and been to the Super Bowl and jetted to LA from the SEC media days for the ESPYs. At 21-years-old he’s living life in the fast lane..
“The spotlight is 10 times brighter and 10 times hotter than I thought it was two months ago,” Manziel told ESPN. “I guess I feel like Justin Bieber or something. I never thought it would really be that way.”
Manziel has not helped himself, constantly tweeting his thoughts to his 360,000 followers. According to the Dallas Morning News, Manziel’s Twitter personality (@JManziel2) sparked some controversy recently when he tweeted, “Bulls— like tonight is a reason why I can’t wait to leave college station…whenever it may be,” early one Sunday morning.
The tweet was quickly deleted, but Manziel followed up with this:
“Don’t ever forget that I love A&M with all of my heart, but please, please walk a day in my shoes.”
Manziel has not done anything criminal other than be arrested for using a fake ID to get into a bar the summer before the start of the 2012 season. But the general public has already started to turn on him and media like myself, who fell in love with his enormous talent last season, are starting to question whether Manziel can handle being a celebrity or if he is destined to become another Lindsay Lohan.
“I’ve made my mistakes,” Manziel said. “I’m still growing up. I’m still learning from that. At the end of the day, I’m going to continue to make mistakes and the big thing for me is to learn from them and not make the same one twice.”
Hopefully, it is not already too late.
