Manziel keeps playbook simple
Solid debut vs. Argos latest sign Ticat QB has turned a corner
HAMILTON— Johnny Manziel was told the media wanted him. He wasn’t mad; he was surprised. “Really?” he asked. “The day before a game?” In the NFL, they don’t do that. In the CFL, they do. Johnny came back out, wearing a black hoodie in the heat. He looked comfortable.
“Nope, not nerves,” said Manziel, the day before his first CFL pre-season game with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats against the Toronto Argonauts Friday night. “There’s no pressure on myself right now. I don’t have to come up here and prove anything in the first preseason game. I just have to come out and play ball.”
If Tim Tebow is the angel of cast-out celebrity SEC Heisman-winning quarterbacks, Johnny Football is the devil. The 25-year-old Manziel once won the Heisman as a freshman at Texas A&M, and was a TMZ regular before he left college a year later. He bombed out of Cleveland two years after being taken in the first round; his father said he was a “druggie” and that “hopefully he doesn’t die before he comes to his senses” and would be better off in jail. During an argument in 2016, Manziel allegedly hit his girlfriend so hard her eardrum rup- tured. A plea deal resulted in the charges getting dismissed.
Manziel would later say he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and that depression led to alcohol. He said, “You are left staring at the ceiling by yourself, and in that depression and back in that hole, that dark hole of sitting in a room by yourself, super depressed, thinking about all the mistakes you made in your life. What did that get me? Where did that get me except out of the NFL? Where did that get me? Disgraced?”
He said that on Good Morning America. College football really is an American religion. He had not played football since 2015.
And now he’s in the CFL, which can still be the little league of last chances. The Tiger-Cats have invested just $10,000 guaranteed; Manziel is No. 2 on the depth chart behind starter Jeremiah Masoli, and coach June Jones says that won’t change before the season begins.
“One at a time,” says Manziel, tattoos peeking out on each of his hands, and one tucked behind each ear. “Right now I’m just taking it slow, being patient. I feel like I’m in a good situation, I can say that wholeheartedly ... and in time, things will work themselves out ... It’s still football. At the end of the day, it’s not the NFL, but I think this is a great league.”
So far, so good. No ego, signs autographs, asks questions and puts in work, which was an issue in Cleveland. Some observers say there are flashes of a man aware he needs to exhibit good behaviour to get where he wants to go. Teammates say he’s just another guy, trying to make a place for himself.
“It’s not been as much of a distraction as you might think,” says receiver Luke Tasker. “He just approaches it right, because he’s asking the right questions. He’s learning the offence well, so he’s just got the right attitude about it. But it’s hard. When I was growing up in the States I was just across the border in Buffalo, and (all) I knew about the Grey Cup and I knew about Doug Flutie. It’s hard.
“Put it this way: You can just see that he has a really high football IQ. He’s just got a true quarterback mind.” “You know what? He’s come in here and just worked for everything,” says centre Mike Filer.
Training camp is the easy part, though: most hours are accounted for, no disappointments yet. Masoli threw two interceptions Friday and turned it over on downs before a TD, over seven drives; Manziel ran 22 plays on five possessions, completed nine of 12 passes for 80 yards, and ran twice for 10. His arm looked good, if on largely simple reads against mostly backups. He was sacked a couple times in the pocket, and was at his best when he wasn’t contained, which was probably too simple a metaphor. Hamilton lost 36-18.
Very few quarterbacks actually figure out the CFL’s reconfigured dimensions within a year — even Flutie’s first year was pedestrian — and it is a league that beats the ego out of you, in a good way. As Filer says, “We’re very involved in our community. We live in it. We’re here. And I think that’s the best part of the CFL, is guys buy into that mentality. We’re nothing without our fans.” Manziel once said his biggest problem was entitlement. The guys who truly succeed here get past denial, anger, bargaining and depression, and find acceptance.
So he’s been great so far, but it’s just a start. Throwing at College Station last year, Manziel chatted for a while with TSN’s Dave Naylor and Matt Dunigan, and as he ran to the field Dunigan shouted after him, “Have a good practice!”
Manziel turned and said, “You know, yesterday was a pretty good day, and today’s been pretty good as well.” Johnny Manziel hit bottom, or he wouldn’t be here. He might never conquer the CFL, and even if he does he may never make the big league again. And now, under the gritty semiobscurity of Hamilton’s little lights, he’s like every addict, every failure, every has-been trying to come back anywhere. He has to do it, and not screw up, and survive himself one day at a time.