The exciting tale of Johnny Manziel

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.