If there is anything the modern day 24-hour sport media cycle has taught us, it is that everything has the potential to become media fodder, especially in the dog days of summer.
We see it with Cleveland Browns quarterback and incumbent bro-king Johnny Manziel, who is threatening to unseat Tim Tebow as the poster boy for unwarranted media coverage before playing a professional game. I’m probably guilty of this as much as anyone else because I’m writing this story but the truth is, Johnny Football’s ascendance has turned him into one of the most compelling figures in the world of sports and a lightning rod for controversy.
I first heard of Manziel during his freshman year in Texas A&M. I’m not a huge college football fan but it was damn near impossible to surf from any sports website without seeing the kid who was electrifying the world as a freshman quarterback in the SEC. He was the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy. From that point on, it was Johnny Football all day, every day.
I am not a big fan of Manziel, but I don’t think he’ll be a flaming bust the way other high-profile quarterbacks before him have been. Lest I am trolled by zealots and Tebow-ites, I’ll refrain from making too many references to the former Gator.
Back to Manziel, I think he has the chops to become a good QB in the NFL. He won’t be in the conversation with Drew Brees and Russell Wilson—two QBs of similar build who have become superstars and Super Bowl champions—but he’s not, well, you know, Tebow.
It’s not fair to compare Manziel with Drew Brees. The man is a first-ballot Hall of Famer and one of the most accurate and most prolific passers in the history. Manziel won’t be as good as Brees but he still will have a successful NFL career.
The question now is, will the media let him?
Whatever Manziel does in his personal time is none of our business. If he wants to party with Justin Bieber and Floyd Mayweather Jr., like his sponsor Nike says, “Just do it.” If he wants to show up at a Boston Red Sox game with women attached to every appendage; just do it.
Last time I checked, there is no crime against making the most of what life has given you. Rob Gronkowski is the ultimate example of living your life to the bro-est, and we do not dedicate hours upon hours of coverage of him at a Beyonce concert in a tank top.
Is Manziel exempted from the rules of privacy? He isn’t the first quarterback to have a successful career in college and become a good quarterback in the NFL, but the way the media has perpetuated and brazenly embraced this open-coverage policy on the guy makes me wonder if his career is already ruined, or severely handicapped, before it even begins.
It is hard to feel bad for a 21-year old from an affluent family who was just drafted to play professional football. However, if that same 21-year old is trying to establish a career in the NFL and earn his way there, maybe we let him do it without our prying eyes watching and nit picking his every move. I am afraid at some point during the NFL season, a sports outlet, probably ESPN, will flash a breaking news report, saying: Johnny Manziel Takes Massive Dump, Shit Comes out Blue.
That is not beyond ESPN‘s standards these days that much I can tell you.
I implore the media to scale back on the incessant Johnny Manziel boner-fest but will my brethren listen? Probably not. Actually, they’ll scoff at the notion and suggest I am an idiot who doesn’t see the news value of Johnny Football.
I do not see the news value of reporting his off-the-field activities. I do not see why it is important for us to treat his Instagram page as its own news outlet. I do not see why it is imperative that we dedicate time fabricating controversies involving him when there aren’t any.
I want my news on Johnny Manziel to be about his play in the NFL. Sadly, it looks like we are already setting him up to fail even before he throws his first career interception.
Where is the journalistic integrity in that?
