Warning: article will touch on mature subject matter and violent themes that may be disturbing for some readers.
Johnny Manziel’s NFL career is in serious trouble.
This is not due to his on-field play; rather, it’s due to yet another off-field incident, one much more serious than all the others he’s amassed in his short college and NFL career.
News of this most recent incident was reported on by Dallas television station WFAA 8’s Rebecca Lopez. These are the harrowing details:
The ex-girlfriend of NFL quarterback Johnny Manziel told police that the Heisman Trophy winner told her “shut up or I’ll kill us both” after forcing her into a car, hitting her, and dragging her by the hair.
On Thursday, News 8 learned harrowing details of last week’s alleged assault of Colleen Crowley by Manziel, who is currently on the Cleveland Browns roster, but is not expected to return next season.
This is easily the worst in the long line of Manziel incidents, ranging from fake ID to middle fingers to rehab to the first domestic dispute with his girlfriend and much, much more. It’s obvious he has a lot of talent; he showed this throughout his college career and even in brief periods during the last two seasons in Cleveland. However, his off-the-field exploits have always been his undoing, and anyone who knew about his problems in college could have foreseen a self-implosion at the professional level.
And the problem is, the people closest to him did. This is what Johnny’s father, Paul, said in August 2013 in an ESPN article about how his son’s life could fall apart:
“Yeah,” Paul says one evening, driving in his car, “it could come unraveled. And when it does, it’s gonna be bad. Real bad.”
He imagines a late-night call, and the cable news ticker, and the next morning’s headlines.
“It’s one night away from the phone ringing,” he says, “and he’s in jail. And you know what he’s gonna say? ‘It’s better than all the pressure I’ve been under. This is better than that.'”
While one would hope that his statement would be proven untrue, Johnny came very close to fulfilling it last weekend. And he’s not out of the woods yet: his ex-girlfriend, Colleen Crowley, was granted a restraining order against him today. Additionally, the Dallas Police Department announced Friday that it was opening a criminal investigation into the domestic violence and assault allegations.
So why have things gone so far off the rails for Manziel recently?
Well, the short answer to that question is that they always have been. Going back to his college days, there was a little bit of a wild side to him; this manifested itself in the way he played on Saturdays. After missing the first half of Texas A&M’s 2013 home opener against Rice, he returned in the second half and did this:
While the Aggies won the game and eight more that season, the incident was firmly etched in the minds of many in the NFL and college football. For some strange reason before then, however, he wanted to get out of College Station, sending (then deleting) this tweet from June 16, 2013:
Bulls— like tonight is a reason why I can’t wait to leave College Station… whenever it may be
In reality, though, this was probably one of his bigger mistakes. Yes, he had gotten in trouble with the law and the NCAA, but football has always been the one constant in his life. And quite frankly, let’s face it: Texas A&M enabled much of Manziel’s shenanigans since the time he arrived in College Station because they realized his talent. For crying out loud, Manziel basically built them a new football stadium, made the university and athletic program a boatload of money and got almost nothing in return…. except a free pass on many of his transgressions.
That’s where this whole problem began. If Texas A&M would have had more of a no-tolerance policy with Manziel, he may have realized the consequence of his actions a long time ago. They could have suspended him for a full game or more for his NCAA violation in the summer of 2013. They did not. They could have suspended him in the wake of the fake ID incident the summer before that. They did not. They could have taken the opportunity to change Manziel for the better. They did not.
Which is why the last thing he needs at the present moment is football. His entire identity in life has been football; just look at his nickname. Without the football, he’s just Johnny. That is to say, he’s nothing. I’m not saying this from the standpoint of actually knowing him personally, and I can’t pretend like I do. However, I can say that Manziel needs some kind of wake-up call. One that doesn’t involve football.
And at this point, it’s really a personal issue for him. It was strictly a personal issue when he reported to rehab last winter to get himself clean; football was pushed to the backburner, as it should have been then and should be now. His father says that he has turned down rehab twice in the past week. He also says that “if they can’t get him help, he won’t live to see his 24th birthday.” The problem with that comment, though, is that Paul Manziel is kinda sorta part of the problem here.
This is how I’ll put it: everyone has different parenting methods that work. Parenting doesn’t seem to be a one-size-fits-all type of thing. But why on earth did Paul Manziel out his concerns through the press? Has he even said these things to his own son’s face? I understand that he is concerned about his son’s well-being, and he should be. But if I was Johnny Manziel and my father said that for everyone to hear, I would not be happy. At all.
Also, why does the elder Manziel talk about “they” when he talks about getting his son help? Isn’t that responsibility on him and his family? We’ve already established that the Browns are moving on from him; while they should help Manziel, they really have no professional obligation to do so, like they did last year. And if none of his friends are going to intervene, then it’s up to Johnny Manziel’s family to help him. It’s almost like his father doesn’t want to take any initiative in fixing his son’s problems. While it should be up to Johnny to sober up, someone else in his life needs to help him realize this. And at this point, it doesn’t look like that person is going to be Paul Manziel.
Obviously, Johnny Manziel needs a lot of help. He needs to get his life turned around in the worst way. If he doesn’t, it’s going to be bad. Real bad.
And maybe, just maybe, losing football will be the critical wake-up call he needs to get his life going in the positive direction. Because his livelihood and well-being are what he needs more than the game or anything else right now.