Manziel in awfully tough spot with terribly bad Alouettes team

By None on August 7, 2018.

Finally! The moment everybody had been waiting for! The unveiling of Johnny “Football” Manziel or as TSN’s Rod Black loudly proclaimed at the beginning of the telecast, “A new era in Montreal and the CFL is about to begin.” It turned out to be more like the prom scene in Sissy Spacek’s “Carrie.”

He was the first freshman in NCAA history to win the Heisman Trophy. The Texas A&M Aggie was drafted in the first round by Cleveland, sometimes called “the mistake by the lake” and certainly a good description of the Browns. He started six games in the NFL, winning two.

To quote Yogi Berra, “It was deja vu all over again.”

“I’ll never forget the 30-0 beating I got in my first start in the NFL,” Manziel told the media. “I’ll never forget going into Pittsburgh, dropping back on the first play of the game and the ball slipping out of my hand and bouncing off the top of my helmet, fumbling to the other team.”

His latest horror story unfolded early. On Montreal’s second play from scrimmage at their 15 yard line with 3:50 gone in the game, Manziel was intercepted. Three plays later, Hamilton touchdown. Four minutes later, Hamilton blocks punt, touchdown. A minute later, Manziel is intercepted followed in short order by a Ti-Cat touchdown. And, oh yes: Hamilton QB Jeremiah Masoli opened the game by marching his team 79 yards in six plays for a touchdown. It was 28-0 for the visitors at the end of the first quarter. By the half, Johnny Football had been intercepted twice more. After 30 minutes, Hamilton led 38-3. The final score was 50-11. Vernon Adams, Jr. engineered Montreal’s only major.

Before the game, subject of an unprecedented media blitz, Manziel said, “This is just going to be another game. I’m very excited, not nervous at all. I’ve been in situations. I’ve had the chance to get a lot of the jitters out of the way.” After the game, Manziel described the setback as “a humbling experience.”

I took no pleasure in his humiliation.

Ever since he was a little boy growing up in Kansas City, Mo., he dreamed of being a football player. Successful at every level, he was heavily recruited and ended up at Texas A&M and enjoyed immediate success as the best player in U.S. college football. At the age of 19, he was on top of the gridiron world in a football-crazy country.

He couldn’t handle it. There were run-ins with the law because of alcohol abuse and a domestic violence complaint which was resolved through anger management therapy. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and has been taking treatment, crucially, staying on his medications. He married model Bre Tiesi who has been his rock, keeping him on the straight and narrow, even attending his practices in Montreal. He credits her for turning his life around. He has had a clean record the last two years and has been a model citizen in Canada.

Let’s keep things in perspective. The Alouettes are a train wreck. Their offensive line is terrible and the defence is surrendering an average of 34.5 points a game. Not even Doug Flutie could turn this mess of chicken feathers into chicken salad. Their head coach, NFL veteran Mike Sherman is as green as Manziel when it coms to the CFL. The defensive coordinator Richie Stubler has been around since the leather helmet era and the game has passed him by. GM Kavis Reed, is in his second season with the club, had no previous front office experience.

Trading Manziel was the right thing for Hamilton to do. He came north to play. Masoli ended the quarterback controversy in pre-season. The Alouettes needed a quarterback and a big name for a big-name town. Following Thursday’s debacle, the Larks were criticized for throwing him into the fire too soon. But it was time to get on with it. No time is the right time when you lose.

For the media, he is a money-making godsend. For the little boy from Missouri, it is a matter of life and death. He desperately wants to keep his dream alive. Good on you, Johnny, I hope you make it.