The Johnny Manziel Overflow

Let me be frank up front: I did not want to write a WORD about ol Johnny Football. So why am I? First of all, I write a college football blog, and second of all, it's a college football story and could have a very SIGNIFICANT impact on the season. Third, I lived in College Station, Texas and I still have some very good friends that live down there, so hopefully I will do them and all the good people of Aggieland justice, as well as all of you reading this. And last but not least, this story did not become intriguing to write about until I started to contemplate the larger social picture of what this whole mess means.

I am going to start with a brief history of Texas A&M football in order to paint the proper picture that this story deserves.

They year is 2010 and A&M is riding high on the wave of Ryan Tannehill and Mike Sherman. They have a 9-3 record out of the Big 12 and they are going to the Cotton Bowl to play LSU. This is the start of something big after a pedestrial 6-7 2009 season and a bowl game pounding by Georgia. Different year, different bowl, different SEC team equals same result however.

The year is 2011 and Texas A&M is ranked 9th to start the season and that's when the wheels falls off. A  7-6 record and a win in the Car Care Bowl later and both Tannehill and Sherman are gone for different reasons. Here comes Coach Sumlin and a recruit named Johnny. So this is an under-achieving team in transition that is going into its first year in the SEC. A sure fire recipe for disaster, no question.

They play Florida tough. They blow out Arkansas. They beat Ole Miss. People are starting to talk. They play LSU tough. They blow out Auburn and Mississippi State. People are starting to believe. Then IT happened. They beat Alabama in Alabama. Boom. If the legend hadn't already been born it came screaming into existence here. The Aggies cruise through the rest of the season including a blow-out win of Oklahoma in the Cotton and little Johnny wins the Heisman as a freshman.

Now that brings us to expectations for 2013.

Boom.

The Aggies, former and present, take their football EXTREMELY seriously. One of the most rabid fan bases in all of the country. Saturdays are a maroon ritual. I had to lobby to change the dress code in the store I managed so the associates could wear maroon. Every business has to have maroon or an A&M banner. And boy were these boys and girls excited. So if the pressure of being a starting quarterback on a Division I school as a freshman wasn't enough, add on the pressure of the SEC, add on the pressure of an excited Aggie nation, add on the pressure of winning a Heisman as a freshman, add on the expectations of NEXT season from your team-mates, from your fan base, from the ENTIRE NATION. I even said in my first blog, Texas A&M is the #2 team in the country with Manziel.

Johnny Manziel is 20 years old.

Let that sink in for a minute.

Do we forget the fact, as a nation, that when we watch college football, we are watching KIDS play a GAME? Let that sink in for another minute.

What 20 year old do you know would be able to handle all that pressure at one time? Hell, there are grown men/women that couldn't handle all that.

So he acts like a dick, stress does that to people. He doesn't want to go to regular class, can you imagine what would happen after a loss, say in Week 3 to Alabama in which he didn't play well? He may have drank while under-age...is that his problem alone? So he got a ticket, College Station PD don't play. Yes, he tweeted that he wanted out of College Station, maybe he does. Maybe he was not ready for that level of celebrity. He's done some immature things. Are people born leaders or are they molded? Where would Abe Lincoln or George Washington be today if they had had Twitter as teenagers?

He's a kid and from what I understand he had a GOOD life growing up and probably didn't have to deal with much in the way of LIFE till he came to A&M. Whose fault is that? We all want the best for our children so they don't have to go through the hardships we did.

Now, before we get out the violin for Johnny M here, this is not a defense column about him. Because if Johnny M DID sell autographed merchandise, which he should KNOW is against some buried law in the NCAA rule-book (didn't we just watch Ohio State go through something like this?), that is plain dumb. It is plain STUPID. This has nothing to do with pressure, it has nothing to do with expectations, it's just plain dumb. Just plain stupid. Does he give a damn? Did he plan on pissing his college career away along with the hopes and dreams of his team and fans? Now I firmly believe in innocent until proven guilty, so I am not going to comment on whether or not I believe individuals who drag celebrities into hotel rooms to sign merchandise for a profit to be up-standing pillars of the community, but neither should have Johnny. Bottom line is, rules are rules (no matter how ridiculous), and if you decide to break one as big as this, you ARE just plain dumb and deserve whatever comes your way.

My biggest question about this whole doing is: Why does it matter?!?! Why do these rules exist? I know other people have tooted this horn but now I am going to blow on it myself. To quote Ty Webb from Caddyshack: "This isn't Russia. Is this Russia? This isn't Russia." This is good ole 100% Capitalistic for better or worse USA. Except if you are playing for the NCAA. Since President Obama likes to talk college ball so much and be involved, why doesn't he figure out how in the land of the free, we have a communistic society as big as the NCAA existing in our borders. I'm ready to bring out the brooms and declare shenanigans!

Come on people. Being paid for merchandise is not being paid to play, so they are still amateurs, (why that matters I do not have a clue), nor do I believe college players should get paid to play; it's called a scholarship. But so what if they are popular enough now that people want their autograph? No one is going to want it after they blow out a knee and don't get drafted. It's their personal life. The market determines the value. If you want to sell your championship ring, do it, you earned it, you can do what you want with it, the NCAA doesn't own the ring or you. (Although if you play for them they apparently do.) If someone wants to pay you for an autograph, so be it. Why does the NCAA care? And for that matter, why do we care. It's a free market, we want it, Americans get what they want, let these kids enjoy their celebrity because as the philosopher once said, "All glory is fleeting."

Then to put the rotten cherry on top of this moldy cake we get this bit of gold from the NCAA: they are no longer going to sell individual jerseys and other team-related merchandise on its website. You mean to tell me the NCAA was selling individualized jerseys?!?!? Three cheers for Jay Bilas of ESPN for exposing this. The president of the NCAA was then afraid that this looked hypocritical. REALLY?!?! Wow, he is president for a damn reason I'm telling you, nothing gets past this guy, except that the NCAA was selling personalized jerseys of the most popular players. But the NCAA received no money off of those sales, so they say....someone did though, and it wasn't the players, that much I know for sure. Absolute bull. The NCAA also said that they will no longer sell college and university merchandise...what the hell are they going to sell?? Am I missing something here? Let me know. I didn't shop the website before it was shut-down, but why would I shop it now after it comes back? The statement said that the website will be selling NCAA Championship Merchandise...what does that mean??!?!  ...If only the Ohio State players had waited a few years they could have sold their crap online through the NCAA....

As always, any and all comments are welcome on the blog site and to my email: collegefootballfanweekly@gmail.com