Johnny Football or Johnny Drama?
Johnny Manziel has had quite the roller-coaster ride since winning the Heisman trophy back in January. He was on all of the late-night talk shows. He had pictures with all kinds of elite athletes and celebrities. He has become one of the most recognizable people in all sport, let alone college football. However, from what we have seen, it looks like Johnny Football can't handle the spotlight off the field as well as he seemingly could on it. He has tweeted about how he can't "bleeping" wait to get out of College Station. He had to leave the Manning Passing Academy because of missed meetings. And now he has this autograph fiasco hanging over his head. It's like a train wreck; we want ESPN to shut up about it, but we can't look away when they talk about it. Did he accept money? Did his friend accept money and thus act as an agent? Why did he sign so many autographs? If it's all true, this is just another instance of Manziel acting like an idiot. Sure, he wants us to cut him slack because "he's just a 20-year-old kid trying to have fun." Sorry, Johnny, but once you won the Heisman, you became a public figure. You're no longer a kid at that point. It's time to be a man and start taking responsibility for your actions. Getting kicked of a University of Texas frat party while wearing a Tebow jersey? C'mon, man! You have got to smarter than that. I hope all of the allegations are false, but if they turn out to be true, then Manziel just showed the whole world that he is incredibly selfish. Why put your whole team at risk for a few extra bucks? It's not like he needs it; he comes from an upper-middle class family. This leads me to my next point...
NCAA "Hypocrisy"
Jay Bilas has long been a man on a mission to get real NCAA reform when it comes to student-athlete compensation. Recently, he had NCAAshop.com shut down because he was able to search by student-athlete names to find memorabilia. Manziel and Jadeveon Clowney were just two of the names that brought player-specific results. Mark Emmert, NCAA president, had the site shut down based on how people could see that as "hypocritical." The student-athletes can't profit off of their likenesses, but the NCAA can. Right. So, Jay Bilas single-handedly shut down a revenue stream for the NCAA. He's currently the NCAA's worst nightmare, and he won't stop until there's real reform. But, if Manziel is doing this - and he comes from a comfortable economic situation - what about the guys that come from nothing? What must they be doing to try and get their family any little bit of cash to help their situation? Honestly, the fact that the NCAA doesn't even let the "revenue-generating" sports' athletes get paid is foolish. Amateurs don't play in 100,000-seat stadiums. Amateurs don't play in front out millions upon millions of TV viewers. Amateurs don't get to be in a video game. It's time to properly compensate these kids for the hard work and sacrifices they make so their respective schools can make money. This does raise a very interesting question, though.
What if there was another pipeline to the pros?
College football is the only way to get the NFL. College basketball is (for the most part) the only way into the NBA. Baseball is much more international, but the a majority of American-born prospects come from college. This leaves us with hockey. There are multiple avenues to get to the NHL. You could go to college and play for a powerhouse. Or, you can head north of the border and play in one of the three CHL junior leagues. How does this change the college hockey landscape? The kids in the QMJHL, OHL, and WHL get paid. They don't have to attend classes and maintain academic eligibility. It's no coincidence that the best prospects come from the CHL. I am in no way knocking NCAA hockey, though. Some awesome players have come from the college ranks. But could you imagine if there was a similar system in place for football and basketball? There would be a complete and total overhaul in the college sports landscape the likes of which no one can even begin to fathom. The best recruits wouldn't even think about going to school. They would chase the paper in the junior leagues. You would find out real quick how many kids actually care about their education and which just care about their sport. There would never be a crowd of 100k+ at a college football game again. The days of one-and-done recruits in college basketball would be over; teams would actually have to build for the long-term. The quality of play in both sports would suffer greatly because all of the best players would being playing in the junior leagues where they would be getting paid. This is something not a lot of people are talking about with all of this craziness with the NCAA and Manziel. It is interesting to play the "What If?" game with it, though.
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