Johnny Manziel, Please Get A Grip: The NFL Is Not A College Frat House! [Opinion]

What can I say about Johnny Manziel or “Johnny Football” and his partying ways that hasn’t been said by practically every football pundit?

Many are somewhere between “I told you so” and the outright declaration that the Manziel era might have ended before it ever really had a chance to begin.

I myself defended the rookie not once, but twice.

I put up as much of a defense as a non-Cleveland Browns fan could about the shambolic end to the franchise’s season, and Johnny Manziel’s part in it.

“I have to take this a lot more seriously. It’s a job for me now.” http://t.co/00TKtU0w3O pic.twitter.com/WU782t1uLa

— NFL (@nfl) December 25, 2014

Because the fact remains that prior to his season-ending injury, Manziel DID have a part in everything going up in smoke for the Browns.

However, I didn’t want to pile on the young man because it was clear Manziel was fighting an uphill battle in the NFL before he ever stepped foot on the field.

You can’t call yourself “Johnny Football” before ever playing a single second of professional competition and not think that people are going to have negative feelings about you and your hype machine.

But at the very least, if Manziel carried himself in a way that lended him sympathy, he wouldn’t be in danger of finding himself on the outs not only at Cleveland, but in the NFL period.

Some felt his partying ways were getting in the way of Manziel reaching his full potential. And that was simply a matter of opinion.

But then, Manziel offered doubters a very strong argument with his failure to turn up for treatment on his injured hamstring. Apparently, security personnel had to be sent to Johnny’s house after he failed to return calls.

Browns owner Jimmy Haslam: We won’t tolerate ‘irresponsible’ players http://t.co/whfyJkdwfu pic.twitter.com/WyYPxVKCCt

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) December 28, 2014

The party is also allegedly indirectly responsible for several other Browns players being reprimanded.

So in a short window of time, Johnny Manziel has not only revealed himself to be potentially a disruptive figure, but he simply does not appear to have anything remotely resembling leadership skills at this level of the game.

That is bad for a few reasons.

First, the Cleveland Browns are currently the laughing-stock of the NFL (which, given the season the entire NFC South had, is saying something….) thanks to the Johnny Manziel hype machine.

Manziel was drafted, and it seemed to breathe some life into the Cleveland Browns franchise in terms of fan support. However, that same hype machine is what largely led to the unwise decision to start Manziel at probably the WORST time of their NFL regular season.

The Browns simply were not able to recover, and their playoff aspirations ended almost immediately.

Second, on the back of helping to torpedo the Browns’ season is Manziel, who has shown himself to be utterly useless and out of his depth. He said he was going to improve, and he would reveal himself to be a better man and player.

But his actions suggest otherwise.

Lastly, with no hype machine and no one remotely amused at this little stunt, I say that the window of time that Manziel had to prove himself has gotten even smaller thanks to this controversy.

Next season will bring on a new round of promising rookies, and if Manziel is not careful, he’ll find himself in the trash heap next to other much hyped young quarterbacks that simply couldn’t cut it and with no franchises interested in taking the risk.

You are no longer in college, Johnny Manziel. If you want that “Johnny Football” trademark to be worth anything a few years from now, you may want to drop the frat boy image and behavior and get serious. While you still have a career to be serious about!

[Image Credit: Glenn Moore]