Magary on Manziel: Talk about throwing stones in glass houses

Does the fact that some of your friends became successful later in life mean using fake IDs, getting into bar fights and underage drinking weren't wrong. They were lucky. Some people who get into bar fights get shot when the other guy pulls out a gun. Some people who use fake IDS, then drink wind up wrecking cars and killing themselves and others.
Are college kids going to make mistakes in this regard? Sure. But do we excuse it all because some claim every college kid for all time has done the same thing? Is there anyone out there who doesn't think underage drinking, driiving after the underage drinking and getting into bar fights is something that should be minimized? And wouldn't a guy who has won a Heisman Trophy be a great role model in this regard?

 

In reality any campus I know of is dry. Kids can't have alcohol in dorms rooms and they're not supposed to drink underaged.
This everybody does it argument is getting old. It's resulted in more tragedy (car accidents, date rapes, etc.) than anything.
But by all means, continue advocating breaking the law because many other people are doing it. A lot of people run red lights. Some rationalize that everyone does it. Doesn't really comfort the family of someone who gets killed when T-boned by a driver who ran the red light.

 

Yes, it was major wrong. You're a goddamned idiot if you think any decent parent wouldn't think so. Even Manziel's father, who seems to coddle and give the kid anything, yanked the car away from him after that.
And yes, we should hope every teen age kid acts exactly like the kids in Porky's.

 

Has Manziel been arrested on a DUI charge? Did I miss that?

I agree with you that's a big problem. There should be a lot more attention devoted to that, and much stiffer penalties.

Other than that, though ... teenagers and early 20s people drink. I suppose you could argue they shouldn't, although it is legal at that age in many other countries, and it is really not "illegal" here any more than parking in a red zone is illegal. But anyway, kids drink. And Johnny Manziel is basically a kid. He appears to be an extremely dumb kid, which is no surprise.

But if you're hanging your hat on "he's in college and he shouldn't be drinking," you come off as just plain crazy.

 

While we're at it, let's ban drinking altogether. And let's ban cars, identification cards and fighting.

That'll show Johnny Manziel.

 

Hondo also believed that Friday Night Lights was not realistic because the team snuck out and went drinking the night before a game.

 

Actually, I don't recall Manziel complaining about people "looking at him".

In fact, it doesn't seem to bother him at all.

 

He pled guilty to a bar fight. There's a thread on sports and news about another guy who was enabled after that in college.

I like Manziel. But he's no angel.

 

I kind of love that Maziel is a rogue.

This idea that he's dishonoring the game or bringing shame to A&M is fucking ridiculous. I can't even fathom how much the exposure and credibility he's given them as a football school in the past year is worth in dollars.

 

You must have missed the part of his SEC Media Days news conference when he compared himself to Justin Bieber and complained about how he just wants to be a normal 20-year-old kid.
Yo, Johnny ... you gave up the normal when you accepted that Heisman. And you're right ... the attention doesn't bother him, until it's convenient for him to complain about it.

 

I'd hate to see how this country would react if alcohol was banned. It'd require a constitutional amendment to make things right.

 

Someone, Forbes?, put a figure on Manziel's worth and it was something like one hundred million dollars to A$M.

They used TV exposure, print/web media exposure, merchandise sales and marketing value to get the figure.

Not that Manziel will see a penny of that. So booze it up kid. Your value as an NFL quarterback is about 11 bucks.