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Dallas Cowboys Sack The Johnny Manziel Idea As His Life Continues Downward Spiral

By Ernest Shepard
Published on: 07:49 PST, Feb 5, 2016

The Dallas Cowboys have sacked the idea of bringing aboard Johnny Manziel. Did the embattled quarterback’s downward spiral convince the Dallas Cowboys to lose interest?

It seems as if everyone is abandoning ship as the life of Johnny Manziel continues to go in the opposite direction. Starting with the Cleveland-based marketing agency run by Maverick Carter, who is a friend of LeBron James, followed by the Cleveland Browns, everybody seems to be leaving Johnny Manziel during a dark time.

The latest news is that IMG’S Erik Burkhardt, who has been Manziel’s agent since the QB announced his intentions to play in the NFL, has now cut his ties with the 23-year-old, according to TMZ.

Burkhardt explains that there is too much damage that has been done by his client, and things are at the point of no return.

“It is with deep regret that, after several emotional and very personal discussions with his family, his doctors, and my client himself, I have made the decision to terminate my professional relationship with Johnny Manziel.

“Though I will remain a friend and Johnny supporter and he knows I have worked tirelessly to arrange a number of professional options for him to continue to pursue, it has become painfully obvious that his future rests solely in his own hands.”

Each of those options, including competing to become the starter of the Cleveland Browns, has crashed and burned seemingly at Manziel’s own hands. With the Browns, who ESPN is reporting are going to end their relationship with him, there were teams lining up to acquire his services. The Dallas Cowboys, due to the interest of owner and general manager Jerry Jones, were among the teams rumored to be interested in bringing Manziel on.

With WFAA News 8, Dallas’ ABC affiliate releasing the latest details regarding a domestic incident involving his girlfriend Colleen Crowley, is it safe to say that the Dallas Cowboys will no longer be a suitor?

In the WFAA News 8 report, it was documented that Johnny Manziel threatened to kill his girlfriend as well as himself. The report also included portions of Crowley’s sworn affidavit, which incriminates Johnny Manziel.

“He grabbed me by my hair and threw me back into the car and got back in himself. He hit me with his open hand on my left ear for jumping out of the car. I realized immediately that I could not hear out of that ear, and I still cannot today, two days later.

“I was in my kitchen, so out of fear for my life, I pulled a knife out of my knife block and advanced toward him.

“He ran out of the apartment.”

The Dallas Cowboys had been interested in Johnny Manziel since the 2014 NFL Draft. It was widely assumed now that after the WFAA News 8 bombshell, the Cowboys have sacked the idea of adding the Browns’ quarterback.

Bringing him on the team would undoubtedly damage the relationship between the Cowboys and their fans, some of whom have followed Johnny Manziel since his days with the Texas A&M Aggies. Many of those fans were hoping that the Dallas Cowboys would draft him, keeping him in his home state of Texas. The Cowboys had an opportunity to possibly move up several spots to draft him, or take him with the 16th pick. Once the Cowboys decided to add an offensive tackle, it was the Browns that eyed him with the 22nd pick in the draft and made him the second quarterback chosen.

Johnny Manziel looks to evade the rush. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)
Johnny Manziel looks to evade the rush. [Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images]

Cleveland saw selecting Johnny Manziel as a high-risk, high-risk reward move. That late in the first round, most teams would have considered it the same way. They wound up swinging and missing, while the Minnesota Vikings grabbed Teddy Bridgewater with the final pick of the first round. Minnesota was a playoff team this year, the Browns ended up as a dysfunctional team with Johnny Manziel supplying a ton of negative publicity.

It could have been on the Dallas Cowboys to deal with the bad press provided by Manziel. Something that they do not appear to be interested in at this time.

It was the Cowboys who felt the backlash when they signed defensive end Greg Hardy to an incentive-laden one-year deal. The 4-12 finish in 2015 was one of the worst years the Dallas Cowboys have had this century. As the injuries and losses piled up, so did the stories of strife in the Cowboys’ locker room. It seems unlikely that the stories about how Johnny Manziel can integrate himself with the Cowboys will be a story this offseason.

If Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys want to help Manziel, as he could use as many people in his corner as possible, they should reach out and mentor him, just not add him to the roster. It would be beneficial to Manziel and a road away from infamy if the Dallas Cowboys organization, and to a lesser extent the Cleveland Browns, would embrace him by helping him find help. They have been linked to Manziel in some way for years. Now is not the time to abandon him. That said, if the Dallas Cowboys, or any other team for that matter, were to acquire Johnny Manziel, it would only enable him. And that would help no one.

It is also time for Johnny Manziel to accept anyone reaching out to him.

Johnny Manziel has shunned the advice of Paul Manziel, his father, who is asking him to seek assistance. This includes two separate times when he was asked to return to rehab (courtesy of Dallas Morning News) for an undisclosed addiction. The senior Manziel fears that his son “won’t live to see his 24th birthday” if he does not get the help from the NFL that he needs. That is how bad it has become for Johnny Manziel.

The Dallas Cowboys were among those teams who were enamored with Johnny Manziel, the quarterback. The Cowboys have now sacked their interests in him. It is not on the Cowboys to sign Manziel, and with everybody jumping ship during this tumultuous time in his life, they will not sign him. Perhaps the Dallas Cowboys could do something greater than adding Manziels as a QB. Perhaps the Dallas Cowboys should invest in Johnny Manziel, the person by helping him get his life back on track.

[Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images]

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