EMBATTLED ONE TAKES ON THE ENTITLED ONE
Nichols, Manziel came about their jobs in vastly different ways, writes
WINNIPEG Some are touting Friday’s game between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Montreal Alouettes as a tale of two quarterbacks.
That’s nonsense.
It’s the tale of one quarterback and one sideshow.
There’s extraordinary pressure on one and a disproportionate spotlight on the other.
There’s more at stake for the Bombers’ Matt Nichols than perhaps at any other point in his career, whether he admits it or not. The last time we saw Nichols, he was getting the hook from one of the most loyal head coaches to walk the planet in a loss to Saskatchewan two weeks ago, the Bombers’ fourth straight.
“I don’t know if it lit extra fire,” Nichols said Thursday. “But obviously it was a feeling that I hadn’t had in a long, long time. And one that I definitely don’t want again.”
Then he’ll have to play better than he has most of the season.
“I’ve always said the past is the past,” Nichols said. “Sometimes it’s easier to say it and harder to actually have your mind believe it.”
The controversy over arms in Winnipeg dwarfs the one over opening Portage and Main to foot traffic. With its free-falling team in last place in the CFL West, a good segment of the faithful wants a change before it’s too late.
Nichols talked Thursday about “forgiving yourself, moving on, not allowing those things to be extra weight on you.
“I’ve done a good job of unloading all that,” he said. “Go out and trust my eyes, play good and things will take care of themselves.”
If Nichols can’t engineer a win over the 3-9 Alouettes, Winnipeg ’s season is all but toast, a quarterback controversy as the jam on top. If Nichols is in trouble, then Johnny Manziel is simply trouble. The Montreal starter rolls into town as the most overhyped and over-scrutinized player in CFL history.
The fascination with his every move has continued since his fall from grace in the NFL. And it has followed him and all his baggage across the border.
Other first-round draft picks have come to the CFL to play quarterback. Other Heisman Trophy winners have, too.
Yet, the amount of time dedicated to discussing Manziel dwarfs them all.
This, apparently, is how we reward bad behaviour.
Manziel’s resume is bursting with poor judgment. Over and over again, he has grabbed the “M” and “E” out of team, mixed it with too many drinks and lord knows what else and chugged it down in plain view for all to see.
Toss in a domestic assault charge and he was radioactive south of the border. So he came here and acted like a model citizen. Then came last week, when, coming off a concussion and a stomach virus, he returned to Als practice and promptly put himself ahead of his team, saying he should be the starter and expressing disappointment Montreal had lost faith in him.
Problem was the Alouettes had won two straight games under Antonio Pipkin.
Asked Thursday if he had any regrets about those comments: “No, I don’t,” he said.
But then he expressed some. “I might have let my frustration get the better of me,” Manziel said. “I could have kept that in and kept that as a private matter, but nevertheless, I want to play and I came up here to play.”
So does everyone else. But they bide their time.
In Manziel’s defence, the Alouettes gave up the farm to get him from Hamilton and said, very publicly, he’d play, showing just how desperate they were for help at the position. Still, when your team’s won two in a row for the first time all season, you should get it. Most players would. Manziel isn’t most players. “He’s asked questions constantly and he answered it honestly,” Als coach Mike Sherman said in defence of Manziel. “And I can’t fault a guy for answering a question honestly. So that’s how he felt. He’s a competitor. He wants to play. He expected when he came to us to play. I don’t mind having guys on the team that want to play.
“Everybody has a little selfishness in them. You try to keep it at a minimum where it doesn’t compromise the team.”
But that’s exactly what it did. Friday, Manziel will get what he wanted, a loss and poor performance from Pipkin last week all his coaches needed to hand the job back to the entitled one.
The world will watch and analyze his every move, devour his stats line and wonder, yet again, what it means for his future in football.
Then the sideshow will move on and we’ll get back to watching a quarterback who earned his job the old-fashioned way and is fighting like the devil to keep it.
Everybody has a little selfishness in them. You try to keep it at a minimum where it doesn’t compromise the team.