How would you have handled it? You just turned 20 years old. You come from a rural background. A&M stands for Agricultural & Military and Johnny Manziel does not look like he has much interest in the Military. But, he loves to play football… and he is pretty good at it.
Forget the off season antics if you will and remember that the guys nickname is Johnny Football and football is what we are back to in September. The Alabama Crimson Tide rolls into College Station on September 15th to put Manziel and his Aggies to the biggest test they have ever faced.
They may have put one over on Nick Saban last year but this is the team that has won back-to-back national championships. Johnny Football will be put to his toughest test to date.
Brian Urlacher, now a sports commentator with Fox, got after Manziel in an interview with the press, “I’m not saying he’s a punk, but he acted like a punk in that game. He’s making plays out there and running his mouth.” The former Chicago Bear went on to say, “He’s such a good football player. You saw in the second half, what he did… three touchdown passes and ran it pretty well. It’s just too bad he had to act like that. I’m pulling for the guy. I want him to do well.”
Those comments were not all that different from others by sports writers and commentators across the country. Johnny Football is somewhat of an enigma. He is a hero, for sure. But he kind of embarrasses us at times but then, think about it. Manziel is just a sophomore in college finding himself suddenly in the national spot light with pretty girls asking for his autograph.
Like Brian Urlacher, most all true sports fans want to see Johnny Manziel do well. Even though he did not play until the second half… and Coach Kevin Sumlin benched him again in the fourth quarter, Manziel’s play down on the field brought cheers of joy from Texas A&M fans. In the short time he was in the game, Manziel threw three touchdown passes.
Manziel took a lot of heat in the press for apparently blowing off his coach when Sumlin was talking to him while coming off the field after receiving a penalty for giving lip to one of the refs but Sumlin later told the press that his comments required no answer and he expected none from Johnny.
