‘Red flags’ push Ticats away from Manziel
• Leaving no stone unturned certainly seems to apply to the Hamilton Tiger- Cats these days as they try to improve on a winless start to the 2017 CFL season.
In the first instance, an 0- 8 start to the season got considerably worse this week when the Ticats made the unconscionable decision to attempt to hire an assistant coach who just recently was in the midst of one of the worst sexual assault scandals in the history of NCAA football.
Fortunately, with the assistance of the CFL and some early backlash from its fan base and sponsor base against the hiring of Art Briles, the Tabbies reversed course and opted not to bring the disgraced former Baylor head coach to the Hammer after all.
A report out of TSN on Wednesday revealed the Briles situation wasn’t the only one that has been occupying the Hamilton brain trust’s minds of late.
According to a story penned by both Farhan Lalji and Dave Naylor, the Ticats front office was in Buffalo en masse a week ago to work out another troubled football name — one-time Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel.
Manziel, who is on the Tiger- Cats’ negotiation list, has been out of football since the second to last game of the 2015 NFL season. He sat out the final Browns game that year with a concussion and was released by the team that March.
The TSN piece quoted sources saying the Ticats felt there were “too many red flags” with Manziel to sign him despite what was considered a decent workout.
Ticats’ vice- president of football operations Kent Austin told reporters at team practice on Wednesday that while Manziel remains on the team’s negotiation list, they have no “imminent” plans to sign the former Heisman Trophy winner.
Manziel, despite a very successful college career at Texas A&M, has not been able to follow that up in the pro ranks since the Browns selected him 22nd overall in the 2014 draft.
His lack of success on the field over his two seasons has been further maligned by his off-the-field antics, which included multiple run-ins with the law and a handful of team violations.
Based on the TSN story, little has changed with Manziel since, at least in the eyes of the Ticats.
Austin wasn’t totally closing the door on Manziel, telling reporters only that the team had no intention of signing him right now.
Clearly, though, this is a team seeking answers and one not afraid to go looking for solutions that many other teams would not consider.
Lost among the Briles snafu was word that head coach June Jones, who recently took over after Austin basically fired himself, had benched starting quarterback Zach Collaros in favour of backup Jeremiah Masoli for Monday’s Labour Day tilt with the Argos.