Shawne Merriman spoke to TMZ about the Johnny Manziel situation and his remarks were rather interesting.
The beautiful part of this story is the understanding of his situation, pertaining to addiction, and overwhelming support for the troubled QB. To clarify, this is concerning his addiction problems, not the alleged abuse of his girlfriend. In that particular situation, empathy isn’t what you usually get- it’s usually behind bars first, ask questions later. It makes you wonder where the leniency comes from?
20-years ago I don’t think we have the same empathy for someone in his situation, but now as a society, it’s the appropriate thing to do when you step back and analyze the whole situation surrounding substance abuse and addiction. Put yourself in Manziel’s shoes and try to understand what went wrong.
Sure we all have things we go through that we have to overcome, but if you look at other people as literally being you, just living a different life, shaped by different circumstances, things like this will become clearer. I’m not a philosopher, I just listen to too much Joe Rogan.
Sure it’s partly his fault for not getting it together and for starting the partying in the first place, but we don’t really know the circumstances behind Johnny Manziel the person.