To me, Johnny Manziel epitomizes human nature. You get something you want more of it. His story is the inescapable truth that we are a society that lives to bring people up only to break them down later. An obvious fact that doesn’t make it any less true.
Johnny Manziel’s rise to fame is simpler than it should seem. He’s an undersized quarterback who starred out of nowhere as a redshirt freshman to win the Heisman Trophy. He scrambled. He had a quirky running style, never looking blazingly fast but rushing by SEC defenders to the tune of 1,410 yards and 21 touchdowns. All the while looking shockingly similar to us, the fan (Sorry, only applies to less out of shape fans).
The new college football wonderkid became Tim Tebow 2.0. Except, he liked to party and was unabashed by his liking of the finer things in life (i.e. partying, girls, all things college). He wasn’t squeaky clean, having been arrested the previous fall. He was human like all of us, and doing what we all know we would’ve been doing in his place or were doing on a more minor scale sans limelight (and the fake ID arrest, in which we all know a few).
Then, before we knew it his college career was over turning pro like so many others. Which takes us to today. As Johnny exits rehab and continues with the legacy of whatever his career eventually becomes, I can only hope to give one message. Like him or not, label him ‘bust’ or not. But let time and an even bigger sample size determine his worth in the NFL and as a person.
In the words of the great Todd Marinovich (referring to people calling him a bum on the street) “OK, but whose was it to lose [talent]? It certainly wasn’t yours.”
At the end of the day, it’s his life, his legacy that only he, Johnny Manziel can create or destroy.