Johnny Manziel. Johnny Football. Heisman Winner.

Whatever you want to call him, he is still the reigning freshman Heisman trophy winner and nothing that people say about him is going to ever change that. Recently Manziel has been accused of receiving a large sum of money for his various autographs, which is a direct violation of the NCAA. If found guilty of this, Manziel would have lost his eligibility to play in the 2013-2014 season. But no evidence was found and all Manziel was given was a half game suspension against Rice in Texas A&M’s season opener.

With all the offseason distractions, can Johnny Football lead Texas A&M to a National Title? By Shutterbug459, via Wikimedia Commons

I am totally fine with the rule that the athletes can’t be paid to play like in the professional league but at least let the kids make some money.

College athletes risk injury every time they step onto a field, court, etc… . They, in turn, should be allowed to go out and get some income for themselves. Manziel isn’t the first and sure as hell won’t be the last college athlete to have to deal with the NCCA’s ridiculous rules. Unlike others, though, he escaped them with just a slap on the wrist.

Many people will question how this happened because it seemed almost certain that Manziel was guilty. He doesn’t portray himself as a good standing college athlete unlike most of his other competition. He has been ridiculed for “partying” or just being a college student but that is exactly what he is — a college student.

We tend to forget that these kids that play the college sports we love oh so much are just 18-22 years old. Yes, they are representatives of huge institutions of higher learning and as such are under pressure to portray mature and respectful attitudes. But they are still in college, and we shouldn’t forget that. I doubt the people who are writing about him acted professional while they were in college and while most of those writers were not a “star athlete,” I don’t think it should make a difference.

Manziel is going to make mistakes. He is going to rant about things that don’t make sense on social networking sites, and he is going to be late for things sometimes. It will either affect his draft stock and ability to play in the NFL or not, but either way, people need to get over this overblown “story.” Give the kid a break. He won the Heisman as a freshman and I believe could win it again this season.

Just because he doesn’t fit into society’s expectation of an all-American quarterback from Texas doesn’t mean you have to ridicule him for every little thing he does. And to me, since Manziel has come to college, especially after winning the Heisman, he has basically been flipping the bird to the NCAA.

Tonight, the 78^th Annual Heisman Memorial Trophy for the 2012 NCAA Football season will be presented at the Best Buy Theater in Times Square, New York. While four finalists are usually showcased at the presentation, this season only has three finalists. They are quarterback Collin Klein, quarterback Johnny Manziel, and middle linebacker Manti Te’o.

The ESPN experts usually have some idea who the front-runner is for the award. This year seems to be wide-open though. Each of the three players deserves to win the Heisman, but unfortunately in this competition (and in sports) there can only be one winner. Here’s a quick break-down.

When all is said and done, Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel should be the winner tonight. By Shutterbug459 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Collin Klein (Kansas State University):  The Senior quarterback for the Wildcats passed for 2,490 yards and 15 touchdowns while also rushing for 890 yards and 22 touchdowns.  He completed 66.2 percent of his passes during the year, only throwing seven interceptions. He is also second in Kansas State history in scoring with 336 points and third in career yards with 7,028. Klein has led the Wildcats to what is probably the best season in school history.

Manti Te’o (Notre Dame): The Senior Middle Linebacker for the Fighting Irish would be the second defensive player to ever win the award. He helped lead his team to an undefeated season (12-0) with 101 tackles and surpassed a school record with his seven interceptions. He ranks third in Notre Dame history with his career 427 tackles and he would become the eighth Notre Dame player to win the award.

Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M University): The quarterback for Texas A&M passed for 3,419 yards and 24 touchdowns while also rushing for 1,181 yards and 19 touchdowns. He is the first quarterback in SEC history (and the fifth player ever in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision) to have 3,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in the same season. He completed 68.3 percent of his passes, only throwing eight interceptions. Oh and I also forgot to mention that Manziel or “Johnny Football” is only a freshman.

The Verdict: All three of these players had incredible seasons and all could easily win this award but only one can actually call themselves Heisman trophy winners. For most of the season, Collin Klein was the frontrunner, but once his team lost to Baylor, his chances dropped dramatically. Te’o and the Fighting Irish were the only undefeated team this year and him being a defensive player, and to make it this far in the Heisman chase is incredible. But the fact remains that a freshman in the SEC threw for over 3,000 years and 24 touchdowns while also rushing for over 1,000 yards and 19 touchdowns.

While Klein and Te’o are both great players, what Johnny Manziel has done is simply amazing and shouldn’t be overlooked just because he is a freshman. Manziel should win this year. When all is said and done, Johnny Football should be posing in New York tonight.