The Life And Tragic Death Of Johnny Manziel?
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DALLAS (105.3 THE FAN) - "The Life - And Tragic Death - Of Johnny Manziel." This biopic is coming soon to a theater near you and no less and authority then Manzano's own father, Paul, concedes it is so.
"I truly believe if they can't get him help,'' Dad tells the DallasNews, "he won't live to see his 24th birthday.''
Indeed, give it time to fester and this already-near-tragic tale will reach a natural conclusion that might just match the cesspool that is "The People vs. O.J. Simpson."
Manziel supporters (the ever-passionate Aggies) won't like that parallel, so I will try a brighter one: Johnny Manziel, if he is very, very lucky, has the opportunity to be football's Britney Spears.
Understand first that this isn't a football story. And it certainly isn't a Cowboys story, the fanciful live-on-105.3-The-Fan flirtations of Cowboys owner Jerry Poppins not withstanding.
No, this is a story about a little kid who was allowed to be out of control the moment his parents realized he could hit a golf ball, catch a baseball, and throw a football. Like pop star Spears just a few years before, the family moved mountains to feed his success -- and, I'm told by family friends, moved from town to town when little Johnny's behaviors or desires mandated it.
A source close to Johnny tells me: "He was a bad-ass Peter Pan. He was never made to grow up."
Whatever else troubles Manziel now -- including drug dependence and mental instability - the seed was planted, I say, when "child star" Johnny was crowned Boy King.
How do those who care about Johnny salvage not just his career but maybe his life?
Paul Manziel, you need to call James Spears.
By 2008, the once-adorable Britney had morphed from precocious Disney kid to Hollywood bad girl. She drove drunk (including three hit-and-runs), jumped in an out of relationships, shoplifted, shaved her head and exhibited behavior that would be later realized as bipolar, all of which landed her in involuntary psychiatric hold and the loss of custody of her children.
"They" didn't help her. Ultimately, the only people with the DNA drive to act, intervened.
Her father, James Spears, appealed to the court and received "conservatorship." Essentially, he was and continues to be a supervisor of her life as if Britney, now 33, were a minor. Her troubled career is now thriving; she earned $31 million in 2015. She has a relationship with her children. And most of all, she's alive.
Who is going to do that for Johnny Manziel? The Cleveland Browns are disavowing themselves of a connection.
Johnny's agent rushed to Twitter to announce their separation; (and why not, as where is there a profit for an agent representing an unemployed player?) LeBron James, who was once going to "rock Cleveland" with Johnny by his side, now refused comment. And no, despite Michael Irvin's pleas that Jerry Jones somehow magically fix this, this isn't the Cowboys' issue.
When Paul Manziel wails hoping "they" will help Johnny, the dad is failing to realize that the "THEY" is "HIM."
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