Johnny Manziel, QB
Texas A&M, 2012
Heisman Trophy Award
The Manziel Penalty came down from the NCAA on Wednesday, 8/28/13. …
Johnny Football cannot play for one-half of the home versus Rice game coming up this Saturday as the opening contest in 2013 for both teams. Manziel will undoubtedly sit out the first half versus the heavily outgunned Rice Owls and then pump the TV ratings for ABC/ESPN by starting the second half to a record-roaring full house crowd of Texas Aggie fans at Kyle Field.
That transaction thus nails the issue into the books as closed and resolved. The NCAA did their job by handing out a wrist-slap to the Aggie 2012 Heisman Trophy winner for … what? It wasn’t for Manzeil selling his autographs. That action was both denied and unproven. No, the NCAA penalized Manziel “for perhaps knowingly signing with autograph dealers”.
How’s that? …. “For perhaps knowingly signing with autograph dealers”?
If you sign with an autograph dealer as a star athlete, doesn’t that imply some notion to the possibility that the athlete expects to get paid for his signatures somewhere down the line? And would not that language be contained in what now exists as a contract (legal or not) between the athlete and the dealer?
Or do you actually have to have either a confession or a proof of a cash payment to hold up a signed contract as evidence of a wrongdoing on the part of Mr. Manziel? – Apparently that is the case. I don’t know what he signed his named to do for those autograph dealers, but apparently it doesn’t matter if he denies getting any money from them and the NCAA can’t find any bullets that had been fired from the smoking gun as cash payments.
Now the NCAA, Texas A&M, college football, the TV networks, and the sponsors get to have the 2013 football season they were hoping for before it was discovered this off-season that the Heisman is no award for wisdom, maturity, restraint, or common sense.
Since the NCAA proved today that they were only interested in getting this turkey baked prior to the start of the season, it would have made it more interesting for them to have given Johnny Manzeil at least one option to that cruel half-game penalty versus Rice.
How about this NCAA offer that never happened:
Mr. Johnny Manziel, for cavorting, or otherwise signing with known sports autograph dealers, even though you apparently never accepted or expected to get paid by them for your services, please select one of these two equally weighted options as your penalty for making this the kind of public issue that the NCAA cannot totally avoid:
(1) Sit out half the game that Texas A&M plays at home against Rice this coming Saturday, August 31, 2013; or else,
(2) Give up eating rice in any form, including Chinese takeout, until after the 2013-2014 college football and bowl season is concluded.
Either way, Johnny, work a little harder this season on the business of thinking through the fact that we all, and that includes Heisman Trophy winners, face consequences for every action we take. Do that much and you may even yet grow up to be a real cool version of “Johnny Football”.
Tags: Johnny Manzeil Penalty
The Pecan Park Eagle 
August 29, 2013 at 1:34 am |
Typical Aggies. What goes up, must come down. I can hardly wait for ‘bama to finish off these bozos.
August 29, 2013 at 3:05 am |
Johnny Ballpoint Got off too easy
August 29, 2013 at 3:27 am |
Wayne, this decision was not made by the Aggies, but by the NCAA. And isn’t it a bit presumptuous of you to characterize tens of thousands of Aggies on the basis of allegations against one???
August 29, 2013 at 8:28 pm |
As frankly was the case against Roger Clemens on another topic was the case against Johnny Manzell. To the masses it sure looked as though guilt could be assigned, but to the word of the law the evidence was not strong enough. This is not totally unlike the Forbes charge regarding the Astros making more money than any team in history. It was highly exagerrated and the most rational analysis that came down later was lost to the masses. In other words there are ALWAYS two sides. Even then a judgment must be made based on facts presented and not logic or “likelys”. Manziel sits out a half under a minor NCAA rule that says an athlete cannot sign masses of autographs–even if he is not paid–that will surely be used for financial gain by another. I only wonder how he was convinced by the promoter to sit and sign so much.
August 30, 2013 at 12:27 am |
Undoubtedly, Johnny Manziel is a very talented football player and had a highly successful 2012 season. Off the field Manziel needs some further maturity. Maybe they should re-think the Heisman Trophy for Juniors & Senior player ONLY?
August 30, 2013 at 4:58 am |
As Anita Martini used to say, “different rules for different schools.”
Ya know, I heard that he was in the NC-hA-hA offices recently for something over 4 hours. I wonder if he had a Sharpie with him. As long as we can cash in on this thing everything’s A-OK with us, but you have to sit out a half just to screw up the bookies.
September 2, 2013 at 1:20 pm |
No, my characterization is fair. Since this post 4 more Aggies have been suspended, albeit by Sumlin (probably preempting the NCAA). Also, the NCAA is a joke when it gave such a heavy sentence for having lunch with a Dallas Cowboy (barf) when this was much more serious. My comment goes far deeper than the latest Manziel ordeal. When he got the Heisman, the Aggies acted like a 13 year old girl in their excitement. To quote someone with class, Coach Royal told his players: “Act like you’ve been here before and intend to be back.” Hardly the Aggie mantra. I have 50 years of stories of those bozos–my favorite is their selling the aisles during the last renovation of Kyle (wonder if they’ll do that one again). Also, chasing the SMU cheerleaders off the “sacred” turf (give me another barf break) with a sword. And putting up a $100,000 scoreboard so a dead dog can see the score of their losing program from her concrete tomb. And finally…what is being squeezed when they yell “Sqeezzze!”?