While we’re on the subject of Johnny Football, this may be the greatest moment in the annals of lack of self-awareness I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading:
This afternoon, Finebaum returned to ESPNU’s coverage of SEC Media Days and suggested that Manziel has “jumped the shark.”
Just like Johnny Football
The thing is, Finebaum is the guy driving the boat. And it’s his employer’s boat.
Get The Picture 
I keep having this thought (with nothing really concrete to base it on) that JM may have had his one and only magical year. I’m not saying he’s a “one year wonder”, but I think he may have peaked last year. It’s just a gut feeling and I’m wondering if anyone else has it.
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Based on what – some off-the-field behavior that’s typical 20-year old nonsense and would be trivial except for the media outlets that have blown it all out of proportion?
I admit it will be interesting to see if the media attention proves to be a difficult distraction. But he’s still got a pretty good offense around him and a coach who knows how to deploy it.
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Senator, I think you and ugly framed the uncertainty around Manziel. I will say this. Without any hard data to back up my argument (that is my personal disclaimer for expressing a totally unsubstantiated opinion), I think when athletes/celebrities have so many consecutive “incidents”, they seem to have trouble sustaining the level of excellence. Its not any one thing, but the confluence of things that make me dubious that he will replicate his success. (he has been photographed with practically everyone from the Houston Rockets to Lebron james, etc.)
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Based on media saturation of the antics of a normal (not St. Timmy) 20-year-old. There’s only so much of that crap the rest of us can take.
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BTW, watching the media days, it is clear that Paul has moved on from Mark Richt and now has A&M and Manziel in his cross hairs. that said, aside from having a seeming agenda (aside from that how did you enjoy the play mrs. lincoln?), in the little I have watched of finebaum on espn he seems to have intelligent questions and is generally thoughtful.
Pollack and Brock Huard are train wrecks and its hard to follow their logic at any time. Pollack tried to make the case that Manziel was entitled to his privacy. He is not entitled to his privacy when he leaves the Manning camp under a cloud of uncertainty. He owes people a direct and honest answer and did not give one.
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Manziel said he’s been invited back to the Manning camp next year. Doesn’t sound like too dark a cloud.
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The cyncial person might say that is more about the Mannings being good people and less about JFM being a good role model.
That said. His lot is decided by his play. Ball out of control this season, beat Bama again and he will be the biggest thing in college football. If the Crimson Sabans head to College Station and go biblical, everyone will get to do a victory lap on the “I told you so” bandwagon.
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I agree with this 100%. Senator, for someone that generally does not accept everything at face value, I find it surprising that you would accept the “mutual decision” and the invitation as indicative of anything. Phan is spot on, the Mannings have no incentive to make Maziel look bad publicly, but they have reputations to uphold and a camp to run. Having been in and remaining public figures, I imagine that they all empathize with Manziel
That said, given the fact that they charge tuition and are “guardians” of sorts for high school kids, my guess is that from a liability standpoint they have to have a zero tolerance policy regarding counselors and drinking. Manziel did NOT deny having consumed alcohol while at the Manning camp. Why? because in all probability that would have been an outright lie, which would have lead to worse backlash.
Again, the real question here is does it affect his on field performance? My guess is his ability to duplicate his past success was going to be hard enough as teams get more film and adjust, but if his play suffers, he has given his critics plenty of ammunition to suggest he was ill prepared relative to other QBs.
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If there’s a zero tolerance policy, why would they invite Manziel back?
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‘Cause he’ll be a pro a year from now. Nothing to lose by extending the invite.
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But is that a “commitable invitation”?
It could just be something they say now to cover his ass and next year he’ll have a “scheduling conflict”.
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Anything’s possible. But why do the Mannings need to go to such lengths?
At some point in time, Occam’s Razor has to kick in here.
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True. But I can offer a couple reasons for the Mannings to go to such lengths. A) They don’t care to keep talking about this, so this kills the story this week without more coming out. If they confirmed the reports, who knows how long they have to answer these questions. B) Archie works for CBS. Think of how much fun he’d have in the studio the next time they air an A&M game, and he gets to talk about that crap.
Who knows what the truth is here, and to be honest, I couldn’t care less about Manziel’s antics. It’ll be nice when we get back to college football, and whether or not his off field stuff hurts his on field performance we can find out on Saturdays. We’re less than a month and a half away from actual football taking over the conversation, or at least we can hope ESPN allows that to take over the conversation.
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Sanchez, that is as good an explanation as one can fathom. Senator, I am just surprised as to why are accepting his/Mannings comments at face value? I look at it this way Johnny Manziel is likely to have next to zero impact on UGA’s season. On the other hand, he is arguably one of the 5 to 10 “biggest” (perhaps most newsworthy or “relevant” might be more accurate) figures in college football (counting coaches, players, and commissioners) at THE PRESENT MOMENT. As as result, he makes news that as humans, we react to. My earlier point was that it will be interesting to see if the off season that he had, which seemingly has him popping up on every celebrity row, has an impact on his on field performance.
I don’t disagree with the notion that he has a right to live his life and enjoy both college and the privileges of being “johnny football,” but when that behavior seemingly suggests he lacks great judgement and potentially could affect his preparation for the season, it is going to be fodder for discussion, and its hard to make the case that nothing was amiss at the Mannning camp or that he is being forthright about things. BTW, noting that he was invited back to the camp is a textbook evasive answer that is intended to CONVINCE rather than CONVEY information and is a tell tale sign that he is trying to hide something. In this case, it was that he got drunk, slept in, and was asked to leave because the Mannings have standards.
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Paaawwwllll is a blithering idiot. Surprised anyone outside of Tuscaloosa gives a damn what he says or thinks.
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Heard a comment yesterday watching the broadcast that FBomb’s new program would be a departure from the past because he would expand from being a one state program encompassing two schools to a national show. The guy was on satellite radio to all of North America and couldn’t get out of that hole, someone really believes that? His “groupies” have no where else to go during their waking hours. It is embarrassing to have referred to as an authority on the SEC, and he has single-handedly given some justification to the disdain for the SEC from other areas. If they only knew how quickly non-Bama fans turn the channel when he comes on.
Paul is a small man, with a small mind….. , he can not broaden himself. Living example of the Peter Principle (there is a tie-in somewhere in those phrases.)
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I think PAWWLLL’s a living example of the Mencken Principle: “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
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Like to take this moment of angst provided by dovetailing Finebaum into media-driven Manziel gossip (both created and lifted into preseason hoopla by ESPN) to entreat all fans to work diligently to finding other venues for your sports “news” and outlets. Don’t let ESPN pull us by the nose like lemmings rushing around in droves . You can pretty much get all info on the internet without touching their contrived Pome ‘d Rue. These bastards are running a frigging soap opera on us by using our CFB sports passion to garner attention. Yeah, it happens with many stories, but not contrived like this Elmer Gantry swill and judgemental folderol.
We knew this shit was coming at Hoover. Ignore the first day and concentrate on our player’s time in the sun. Remember ,this is called SEC “Media” Days. They are making the most of old info because they don’t have any new info. If a quote comes out befitting your attention it usually is headlined in some other internet media.
mdcgtp says to view Finebaum in other than red and black scopes with crosshairs. Good for him for leaving the herd for a moment. We all need to do that every once in a while to keep our CFB passion level. Remember, Paul has the right to make a living using his unique area-driven opinions while ESPN is the source of putting the turd in our punchbowl.
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Keeping our passion is so important! You are the wisest DAWG of all. Love you Man!
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Now that he works for ESPN, shouldn’t we just contract his name to “PaWWL”?
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I had this conversation with some friends yesterday. First, hero to villain. Next, total flame-out or redemption story. It’s a McNews cycle that feeds itself and the haircuts get to feel like real reporters instead of the gossip columnists that they are when they were hired to turn ESPN into “Sports Night” over the past decade.
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A good point was raised, Johnny M’s roommate at the Manning camp was AJ M from Alabama and he will be in house tomorrow. Imaging having to spend your whole time there taking questions about the guy who beat your team and beat you out for the Trophy. AJ might want to get sick.
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“I overslept. My alarm didn’t go off. My cell phone died.”
Excuses you make if you got knee-walking drunk the night before.
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“It wasn’t my fault I swear to God!!!”
http://m.youtube.com/index?&desktop_uri=%2F#/watch?v=sz-Lzu01olY
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