Johnny Manziel has had a whirlwind off-season since winning the Heisman Trophy. Manziel has been seated courtside at games, partied like a rock star, and most recently cut loose in Cabo, Mexico for Spring Break.
Manziel is constantly in the public eye, and even needed to have the athletic director of Texas A&M sit him down to explain to him how a Heisman Trophy winner is supposed to act.
Now a newspaper columnist from the Orlando Sentinel thinks Manziel ruined it for any freshmen Heisman candidate in the near future.
Matt Murschel of the Sentinel thinks the Heisman Trust should rethink giving the award to a freshman, after the way it has gone to Johnny Manziel’s head this offseason.
Murschel rips Manziel, and refers to him as a “a persona living a rock-star lifestyle in the body of a 20-year-old college student.”
Like a modern day Jekyll and Hyde, the Texas A&M quarterback has found himself justifying the off-the-field actions created by his on-the-field persona. A persona living a rock-star lifestyle in the body of a 20-year-old college student.
After the offseason that Manziel has had, the Heisman Trust should rethink giving the award to a first-year player again.
The pictures tell the story. There’s the ones of him at a club with friends, or courtside at an NBA game, or dressed up as Scooby-Doo next to scantily clad coeds, or the ones where he is enjoying spring break on the sandy beaches of Cabo.
Each documents the life of an average college student, but in Manziel’s case, he is not your average college student. He’s the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, which means everything he does – good or bad – is magnified 10-fold.
Murschel justified his criticism of Manziel by comparing him to former Alabama Heisman winner Mark Ingram who won his award at the age of 19.
It’s not that Ingram was a better person than Manziel or Nick Saban miraculously kept Ingram in line. Mark Ingram is somewhat shy and reserved, Johnny Manziel is not.
Johnny Manziel had an outgoing in your face personality even before he won the award. For Murschel to assume that a freshman who dominates on the field shouldn’t be allowed to win an award of because of immaturity is wrong and baseless.