If you have the opportunity to watch this new documentary about Manziel, it is very enlightening on how awards, fame and money in one’s early adult life can destroy you in the years that follow. Of course, it doesn’t help when you have a disease like bipolar disorder and immature frat boys in your life egging you on. It’s on N$$flix (I won’t post the link here for obvious reasons). It’s worth the watch…
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Caught it tonight. Unless there is another episode, it focuses almost entirely on his time at Texas A&M, getting drafted by the Browns, partying/legal troubles and flaming out of the NFL. It’s an interesting cautionary tale, not sure there’s anything really new or earth shattering there that hasn’t been told before. No mention of his time in the CFL.
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They only do one episode per athlete. Not surprised they ignore his disastrous time in the CFL.
In general, getting stuff bestowed on you can be a shock. There are many stories of lottery winners who lose everything and regret ever having won it. Add on extreme fame and immaturity like Manziel and it’s a recipe for disaster.
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If he actually put in the work he would have been a good qb in the CFL at least. Lots of mentions in that special that he did zero film study while in college, including from Manziel himself. I doubt he did much more of that in the pros, other than the basics of sitting through qb meetings. He was athletically gifted and it came too easy to him in year one at A&M. Never bothered to work at it then was more into the partying than anything else.
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I had a different takeaway. Every year produces a new crop of “next big thing” athletes and the fame and money early on doesn’t affect them like it did Manziel.
The impression i got was he was sort of a fish out of water. He wasn’t really into football, he just did it because it was Texas and in his words, " if you didn’t play it was you were a wimp ( he used a different word, ) or you sucked".
He went along never expecting success, thought college would be his peak.
Doesn’t sound like he has much guidance, his OC essentially said he let him do what he does, the university saw nothing but dollar signs and rode the wave, didn’t seem like there was any attempt at helping him as a person.
He was a kid that wanted to party and didnt take football seriously as he didnt expect success. He was surprised himself when it came. The lack of structure and support with rhe sudden pressure + his bipolar resulted in what we saw.
I equate it to many of us regular folk who stumble into a career we’re not really passionate about.
It’s just different with Manziel because most people assume everyone would love to be a famous rich athlete.
It was good to see that be seems to have found balance in his life.
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I agree, he was more interested in being famous than playing football
That comes with such a negative connotation. Some people don’t want what is thrust upon them and that’s ok.
I was once told, there are no guarantees in life, only choices
Because they aren’t saying it was his poor play that ended his NFL career. But his poor play definitely ended his time in the CFL. And that would be bad PR for the NFL. Same old narrative.
I don’t have the best memory, but I don’t think it was poor play that ended his time in the CFL. I think Montreal was fully intent to bring him back when the CFL suspended him.
My gut says Johnny knew exactly what he needed to do to get suspended and it was a planned act that he hoped would let him play in the XFL, but I’m sure we’ll never truly know.
It seems, to me, much longer, ago, than 5 years when the TiCats waisted time on that guy. A lot more important things, happened here, in 2018, that connect, in some ways it seems, to where the team’s at, today.
That year, before the season started, the Cats, with Eric Tillman still GM and June Jones going into his only full season as HC, traded Zach Collaros to Saskatchewan, demoted Kent Austin to “consultant,” and drafted Mark Chapman #1 overall.
Then, in a very up & down, or really more down & up, season the team did get back into the playoffs, hosting and winning the Eastern semi-final, after a year out in '17. From that year’s team, with a losing (8-10) record, came more division all-stars (9) than any of the other 8 teams, a tie, with the Blue Bombers, for having the most CFL all-stars (5), and Jeremiah Masoli was the East Division QB and MOP. It could, maybe, be called a year-to-not-remember, but despite it, two consecutive trips to Grey Cups were coming up next.
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