I want everyone to get a real good look at this kid. This college football phenom, twisting his fingers & thumb in his signature “money” hand gesture. This kid’s name is Johnny Manziel, alias “Johnny Football”…………..whatever the hell that means.
Before I get into the platforms of this blog, a little context: Manziel was a freshman quarterback (QB) at Texas A&M, who was a sensation for the team and a diamond in terms of marketing his newfound ‘brand’. He won the Heisman Trophy in 2012 and after his college football playing days were over, he was drafted in the 1st round of the 2014 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns (I know, I know, as if that alone wasn’t punishment enough). After 2 years of drugs, alcohol, partying in Las Vegas the night before a game, showing up to team practice drunk, he basically washed out of the NFL without fanfare. Matter of fact, I’ll post the chronology of all of his misdeeds right here, just so you don’t think I’m picking on the guy. By the way, this blog will be link-heavy, so you’ll be able to click/read each article in context as I go along.
Fast forward to March 2018: Manziel wants a second chance in the NFL. At a recent NFL Pro Day to watch other NFL prospects, Manziel threw them passes, and 13 NFL scouts were in attendance to watch him. But it’s a slightly different NFL than when he left; meaning; a lot of things have transpired that before Manziel washed out, would have been allowed, but not in today’s game. I will detail for you now the 3-sided coin of unintended consequences.
Johnny Manziel’s return to the NFL is dangerous territory on three points:
POINT I: THE NFL’s “DOUBLE-TAKE” ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
I’m going to give you the names of 5 individuals and the first person who can tell me what they have in common gets 10 points:
- Ray Rice
- Greg Hardy
- Ray McDonald
- Chad (Ochocinco) Johnson
- Josh Brown
Have you figured it out yet? Yep. All 5 have incidents of domestic violence in their respective NFL pasts. Ray Rice, a Super Bowl winner with the Baltimore Ravens, famously went straight Holyfield with a left hook on his then-fiancee’, he was suspended from the NFL indefinitely, and has been begging his way back in ever since, to no avail. Greg Hardy was alleged to have beaten his then-girlfriend and subsequently had other off-the-field issues; he’s out of the NFL. Chad Johnson was married to a reality TV star, had a domestic violence incident where he headbutted his wife, was cut from the Miami Dolphins, has been out of the NFL ever since.
Ray McDonald played for the San Francisco 49ers, had a domestic incident with a woman, was cut by the 49ers, which was the proper route to go. The Chicago Bears flew McDonald to their offices, told him they wanted to sign him but couldn’t have any of his shenanigans; McDonald said ok, no problemo. The Bears signed him to a contract and shortly thereafter, had a domestic violence incident where he assaulted his ex-fiancee’ with their newborn baby in her hands; McDonald has been out of the NFL ever since.
Josh Brown, ex-kicker of the New York Giants, beat his wife more than 20 TIMES over the course of several years before he got put out of the NFL, at one point saying he felt ‘entitled’ and He said he “viewed himself as God and that Molly (his wife) was basically his slave“. Here’s where things get weird and this is a direct shot at the NFL’s double-standard: 1) one of these incidents happened at the NFL Pro Bowl, and NFL security moved his then-wife to another hotel room without him knowing where she was. Given that NFL security and top brass consists mostly of retired FBI agents, you had to know that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell knew about the incident almost immediately. What did he do? He suspended Brown for……….wait for it……….one game. 2) Brown’s team, the Giants, KNEW ALL ALONG what he’d done to his wife, and what did THEY do? Wait for it……….they gave him a contract extension worth $4.75 million! Giants owner John Mara told WFAN in a radio interview:
“He certainly admitted to us that he abused his
wife in the past,what’s a little unclear is the extent of that.”
There’s a 6th name I’d like to add to this list……..that’s right, the ‘Golden Boy’ himself, Johnny Football. JOHNNY MANZIEL IS A DOMESTIC ABUSER.
In 2016, this young lady in the photo below was Johnny Manziel’s girlfriend. This girl’s name is Colleen Crowley.
You know what “Johnny Football” did to this pretty face? In January 2016, he beat her. He hit that girl so hard, he ruptured her eardrum, so much so that she now has partial hearing. And as if that wasn’t enough, he kidnapped her & threatened to kill her. Let that sink in real good for a minute before you read on.
Click here to take your pick of whatever multiple links you’d like to read to familiarize yourself with this incident.
Now, overall, we know why the 5 aforementioned names are out of the NFL. The NFL has never come out explicitly and said ‘they’re not playing because they beat their women’……….but it’s more than just a tacit understanding between the NFL and the general public that that’s why they’re not signed to a team. It’s also a plausible enough assumption that all 5 of these guys are still in ostensibly decent NFL-level athletic conditioning.
Here’s where the 1st of the 3 unintended consequences comes in: if any NFL team signs Manziel to a roster, have you any idea what a legal conundrum of vulnerability the NFL would be in? You are now looking at a potential of 5 collusion proceedings being filed against the NFL and the smoking gun – the simple preponderance of evidence – would be video of Manziel signing his contract on ESPN or other sports network. If that happens, what are you gonna do when Ray Rice comes knocking on the door, trying to rejuvenate his career? Or Chad Johnson, who was as entertaining a wide receiver as Terrell Owens – how are you gonna keep him out of the league? The other three – how do you justify signing Manziel and keeping the door closed on them?
POINT II: THE NFL’s CURRENT FANBASE AND POTENTIAL HYPOCRISY
Right around the time all of the aforementioned incidents were occurring and the NFL’s image was being shredded, somebody had the bright idea of putting out some marketing tools to stop the PR tsunami the league was facing, declaring the NFL’s stance on domestic violence to be that of zero tolerance and putting out new rules stating as much. Here are the rules in PDF format (will automatically download to your system).
One of the things they did was to put out some PSA’s (public service announcements) with no sound, no talking, just effective visual content of NFL players teary-eyed and crying with a tagline at the end about how domestic abuse is bad, which of course, it is. Here are a few links to videos you may remember: Link 1 Link 2 Link 3 Link 4
Also, the NFL’s ratings have been declining steadily over the last few years. Given that fact, and compound that with even lower ratings due to the NFL Anthem protests, the NFL fan base and profit margin has dried up considerably. Granted, a lot of NFL fans don’t like Colin Kaepernick’s protest of police brutality, but that aside, you know what else they presumably don’t like equally as much? The notion that the NFL would seem to turn a blind eye to a man physically assaulting a woman without consequence or accountability; worse so, it being an NFL player physically assaulting a woman without consequence or accountability.
Here’s where the 2nd of the 3 unintended consequences comes in: if any NFL team signs Manziel to a roster, what do you say to female fans of the game – rather, the female fans you have left, who buy jerseys and other NFL paraphernalia? “Sure, we love your money, yeah, we tacitly condone wife beating but don’t let that stop you from buying season tickets”. Is that the message the NFL wants to send? I’d think not. Furthermore, what do you say to people like NFL Hall of Famer Cris Carter or NY Giants quarterback Eli Manning – two people who were in those silent ads posted above who just happen to embody the BEST of what the NFL represents; two people (among others in those commercials) who the NFL could send anywhere in the world to as an Ambassador for the league; two people who stood solemnly and tearfully and laid all emotions bare on camera to the risk of ridicule – what do you say to them? “Seemed like a good idea at the time? We meant it……….but now we don’t?” How do you flack that kind of hypocrisy?
POINT III: CURRENT COLLUSION PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE NFL
Everybody knows that Colin Kaepernick has been persona non grata from the NFL since his 2016 protest of systemic oppression and police brutality against unarmed minorities by law enforcement. For all those dough heads who think he’s taking a knee against the flag, the military, the national anthem and against all of America, let me remind you of 2 things: 1) it was a Green Beret, Nate Boyer, who encouraged Kaepernick to take a knee instead of sitting on the bench to protest police brutality (link 1 / link 2), and 2) well, I’ll just let the man tell you for himself.
Everybody also knows that, because of his protest against police brutality, he has been blackballed from earning a living in the NFL. Now, just as I said before, the NFL has never come out explicitly and said ‘he’s not playing because of his FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT to protest’……….but it’s more than just a tacit understanding between the NFL, the 32 NFL team owners, NFL fans who would rather believe a different narrative than face the hard truth, and anybody with half a brain that that’s why he’s not signed to a team. For more perspective to the original narrative, it is a known fact by the FBI that White supremacists have infiltrated law enforcement in significant amounts; so much so that the FBI began investigating this fact as far back as 10 years ago! Click here to take your pick of multiple news links to read to support that platform. Also, feel free to click back to another blog I wrote where I go into the individual disparate treatment in how some incidents are handled by law enforcement as opposed to others.
Here’s where the last of the 3 unintended consequences comes in: if any NFL team signs Manziel to a roster, what do you say to NFL fans who vehemently oppose police brutality in the wake of so many deaths of unarmed citizens? “We don’t care?” And what do you say to Colin Kaepernick, who only wanted to bring awareness to a problem that affects a significant part of this population, yet at the same time, would like to continue to make a living playing the game he loves?
That collusion lawsuit is still at the forefront of the NFL’s problems. With the recent signings of more washed-out QBs (RGIII to the Ravens, for example), the NFL is running out of bums to sign to avoid giving Kaepernick an opportunity to play. You know what else they’re running out of?
Excuses…………………………….and time.