MANZIEL MANIA ADDS INTRIGUE TO UPCOMING CFL SEASON
Reporters descend on Hamilton to see if Johnny Football can still play at high level
It is the biggest splash to hit Hamilton in recent memory, but the Johnny Football Show is still very much in rehearsals.
On the third day of Tiger-Cats training camp, and four days after the team announced it finally landed Johnny Manziel, the would-be NFL star who long ago instead became embattled former quarterback Johnny Manziel continued his babysteps return to football.
He took part in some sevenon-seven drills. He made some throws. He continued to study a playbook even his coach says is “like learning Chinese.” Plus, big field, three downs, 12 players per side, the rouge: there is much to figure out.
“We’re piecing it together,” Manziel said after practice at McMaster University. “We’ll keep doing more and more stuff every single day.”
About the only thing already in mid-season form is his media game. Manziel has been doing radio interviews in bunches since he signed Saturday, and though the clutch of reporters and cameras in Hamilton on Tuesday was small, it was still much larger than would normally be
around the team in mid-May. An ESPN crew is expected to arrive Wednesday. USA Today will have someone here before the first pre-season game. And then, if Manziel plays, look out.
It could be a complete disaster and an embarrassment for the CFL. It could be a resounding success that wins the league valuable exposure in the wider football world. It could be both a success and an embarrassment, if Manziel performs well and then leaves at the first opportunity.
Whatever happens, it won’t go down in the background of a routine season on the south shore of Lake Ontario. Manziel’s arrival has already ensured that.
Even the most casual of football fans is at least vaguely aware of Manziel’s resume. A highschool star in Texas, he became the starter at Texas A&M as a freshman in 2012 — after, in a bit of foreshadowing, he narrowly avoided discipline for a drunken fight near campus — and went on to set a pile of records and win the Heisman Trophy.
That season included a win over top-ranked Alabama and backto-back games in which Manziel amassed more than 500 yards of total offence. His numbers were outrageous: in 13 games, more than 5,000 combined passing and rushing yards and 47 combined touchdowns, against nine interceptions. He was also improvisational and fun to watch. At 20 years old, Manziel was already a legend. He was also, as is now evident, a bit of a mess.
He would remain one more year at school before declaring for the NFL draft, and was taken in the first round by the Cleveland Browns in 2014. He would show sparks of his football gifts over two seasons, but had a seemingly well-earned reputation for choosing partying and alcohol over practice and playbooks, and was released before the 2016 season.
Charges stemming from a domestic-assault incident that year against a former girlfriend — later dropped in a plea arrangement — followed, and he was dropped by multiple agents and sponsors.
Manziel, in announcing a planned comeback on Good Morning America in February, said he had been taking medication for bipolar disorder that turned his life around.
Since his arrival in Hamilton, Manziel has said he is not proud of his history: “I’ll never be able to outrun my past,” he said.
What he’s trying to do in the short term is win a job, which,
despite his talent is no sure thing. The incumbent TigerCats starter, Jeremiah Masoli, flourished under new head coach June Jones last season, averaging 348 yards passing over Hamilton’s final five games of a lost season. But Jones, who has already suggested Manziel could be an all-time CFL great, did not bring him here so he could hone his clipboard-holding skills.
Manziel, who has said he just wants to see how this comeback goes before thinking about his long-term plans, let slip on Tuesday that he has one path in mind, in response to a question he was asked about Doug Flutie.
“I don’t think the CFL is exactly everyone’s end game. For some people it definitely is, but guys are striving to get to the NFL and Doug did that,” Manziel said. “Guys like Warren Moon did that, they played up here at a very high level and then went to the NFL and had success. We had good talks about it,” he said, referring to Flutie.
Did he think, with his running ability, he could have a Flutietype impact up here?
“Right now I’m struggling to see how many guys are on the field and what the defence is doing,” he said. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”