Comfortable Manziel ready for first game action
It’s interesting what can transpire when a professional athlete is back in his natural environment.
Johnny Manziel has done nothing in the way of consequence for the Hamilton TigerCats — yet — but more than a week after signing with the Canadian Football League club, the comeback trail for the quarterback known as Johnny Football has featured few bumps.
“I get a chance to come up every day and wake up and walk right across from the dorms to the field, go to practice, go watch film, go to lunch, go to another meeting, come back and do it all over again,” Manziel said after the Ticats’ training camp practice at McMaster University on Tuesday.
“It’s a lot better than some of the things I was doing in the past and I’m happy to be in the situation that I’m in.”
Manziel’s progress through 10 days has the 25-year-old in a solid frame of mind not long before he makes his CFL debut in a pre-season game when the Ticats play host to the Toronto Argonauts at Tim Hortons Field on Friday night.
“I feel like it has been a smooth transition with everybody here in the organization, with my teammates, with the offence,” Manziel said. “I don’t feel overwhelmed, I don’t feel pressure,
I don’t feel like I’m being treated any differently than anybody else on the team.
“We’re having fun being in camp. That’s what I can say. I’m having a lot of fun building relationships with guys.”
The true test of Manziel’s development will come when he steps onto the field against the Argos. What’s known is Manziel will enter the game at some point in relief of No. 1 quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, but to what length Manziel plays is to be determined.
“We will probably script a lot of the stuff and there will be a number of plays,” Ticats head coach June Jones said. “I’ll know by Friday. I haven’t done the script yet, but he will know going into the game how many he is going to play.”
Manziel acknowledged that his patience has been tested, but only during the initial days of camp. He has come to learn what many U.S.-born players have refused to believe over the years — and as such never made it in the CFL: That a mastery of the game can’t be had at the snap of the fingers.
Studying the playbook, taking advice, asking questions. All of it has to be done constantly before success can be had on the field.
“Trying to cram all of it in, in one day, and get out there the next day and feel like you know everything … it’s just not realistic,” Manziel said.
“I am completing passes, I know where I am supposed to go with the ball, I’m good on the run game.
“There is a lot more to it than just knowing the stuff. You have to really get into the intricacies of what (centre) Mike (Filer) and his O -line guys are doing and what every little break on every route is based off leverage and where these coverages are.
“When you can start knowing where these defensive guys are going before, that is when you really learn stuff.”
With his comfort in place, Manziel knows what to expect from himself when he enters the game. “Just go take a snap and have some fun,” Manziel said. “There is no pressure. There is no ‘go out and throw 10 touchdown passes in one drive.’
“It’s just ball. It’s getting the chance to put the helmet on and go play a game. Just another step to where I want to be and where
I need to be moving forward.
I am excited about it and looking forward to it.”