Johnny Manziel

If you are a college football fan you have heard whats been going on with Johnny Football as he is referred too. If you are not than here is an update. Johnny plays for Texas A&M football. He is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner as a Redshirt Sophmore. He led his team to a win over the reigning National Champion Alabama, which was Alabama only loss all year. Since football season ended Johnny has been in the news for underage drinking at frat parties to being investigated for profiting over making money on autographs. The biggest topic that is being debated is the latter. Some people say hey its his name why cant he make money off of himself. The answer to that is simple. The NCAA does not allow it. However absurd that it sounds thats how it is. The school can profit. The NCAA can profit but he cannot. Now the NCAA did say they will not be selling school merchandise on their website. The school yes sees their ticket sales go up and more recruits go to their school if they do well and Johnny is putting a lot of people in the seats. But the school has to lay out money as well. Lets say they are allowed 20 scholarships and 15 of them are on a free ride the school has to eat that money that they will not be receiving in tuition. Thats just in football. They have basketball scholarships and many other sports. I have a problem with the way some schools are dealing with that as well since schools are eliminating sports to save money but than give free rides to kids that play football and basketball since they bring in the money. But back to Manziel, he is a rich white kid that seems to be quite spoiled. His parents are very wealthy people that made most of their money from Oil. I saw an article today that said they also was involved in cockfighting. So lets say they have dabbled in some questionable activities. The other side of the coin and lets explore this a little bit is Johnny tells Texas A&M I'm leaving the school to go to the NFL and doesnt play this season. For one that would be a huge blow to the Alabama Texas A&M game on Sept 14. One that I am very excited to see and hopefully an Alabama victory. The Honey Badger from LSU got kicked off the team for drugs and now will profit in the NFL. Pete Carroll left USC in shambles to run to the NFL before USC got hit with sanctions. I believe they were investigating Oregon when Chip Kelly left for the Eagles. So lets say Manziel takes this route. He runs away like a coward and applies for the NFL draft. From what I heard hes a 3rd rounder right now. Someone will guarantee to draft him and sign him to a multi year deal worth a good amount of money. Now remember he is not some poor kid that has to rely on football (maybe thats the problem). Hell end up in the NFL away from the sanctions if any that the NCAA lays down. So now the players that are there after him have to suffer. Look at Ohio State in 2012(12-0 and no bowl games due to selfish kids getting tattoos and cars). Could you imagine being on an undefeated team just to be told nope you wont be playing in any bowl games this year? I would be highly annoyed. I dont believe any player that gets in trouble should be able to run away from the problems they left behind. The NFL and NCAA need to get on the same page and not let the player make the jump meaning if the NCAA puts down a 2 year ban on the school or takes away scholarships than the NFL will not let that player come to the league for the 2 years. Now not only does the school suffer but the player is sitting at home watching other kids get drafted taking his spot. Like my mom always said if you wanna make a person suffer hit them where it hurts the most....IN the wallet. In this case Manziel will also be ok financially. If you hurt his reputation than just maybe someday these kids will wake up and think. Im a huge football fan to see the game being ruined because of what these kids do is a disgrace. Whats more of a disgrace is the NFL lets them run from the problems players/coaches leave behind and hide there.

Here are some of my thoughts on what has occurred in sports that I have seen over the past couple of days. Lets address the monkey in the room and his name is A-Rod or as everyone seems to call him A-Roid. I have gone back and forth with this issue in my head. In the public eye he is a cheater and should be thrown out of baseball. This is the same public that was cheering these guys 15 years ago when balls were flying out of the parks. So the fans need to get off there high horse and relax. You are not the judge juror or executioner in this case. Bud Selig himself turned a blind eye plenty of times on this issue. Could you imagine what the sport would be like if Jose Canseco didnt right the book and flip on all of the players. Yes he did it save his own rear end but look at this way nobody including him will ever be in the HOF and nor should they be.If or when I ever do have kids and take them to Cooperstown where I have gone a couple of times in my life I do not want to see these guys next to Ruth Mantle Mays Gehrig Seaver Robinson Johnson and the rest of the great players that were inducted and played the game right. I have heard people say that there are wife beater and drunks in the HOF and I agree but how does that change the game on the field?? Steroids do change the game. It also changes longevity of players careers. I believe whatever happens to A-Rod is entirely on him. I do not believe that this is a sad day for baseball but as a fan a great day for baseball. Get these guys out of the game. Get the guys in the minors that are cheating out of the game. There are players playing with false names. I know quick change of subject but MLB needs to catch that as well. That is incredible that players can play under a false name. How much integrity is that? Absolutely none. I am a supporter that Pete Rose who agreed to the lifetime ban get into the HOF before any of these guys. I even went so far and said maybe we shouldnt allow any players who played from 1998-present into the game. That means guys like Jeter Glavine Maddux Smoltz Johnson Griffey etc etc will not get into the HOF. We have no idea how many guys beat the system. Im assuming that Jeter is clean. He never changed. But now in support of A-Rod he never once failed a legit MLB drug test. That is the only thing that can somewhat hold him up and thats thin ice. So at the end of the day if MLB rounded all of these players up like cattle and threw them out than I would absolutely support that.

Start of the high school football season

I have started this blog in order to get people view on the game. I know Rivals is out there but maybe we can get away from all the arguments and headaches and get a civilized conversation going away from all of the rankings and such. We can start topics of games of the week. Plays of the week. What teams are surprising you? Which teams are disappointing? We can even go outside the realm of just football and talk about any subject matter we would like that we have on our minds. But for one let me introduce myself. My name is Kevin. I am a huge sports fan. My entire life has been sports. I have played baseball, soccer, lacrosse and swimming. I was a swimmer for 10 years and swam in college for one year at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY. You can find me at all sorts of sporting events from NY to NJ. I watch football, soccer, hockey and lacrosse. I follow soccer and lacrosse at the college level. I follow football from high school to the NFL. Lacrosse is college. I look forward to going to games and chatting with other fans and getting more of an inside knowledge. There is nothing better than a fall crisp days and football is being played. The pads are popping, the fans are cheering and players are celebrating a victory. I was always an athlete. I still have that competitive athlete drive. In the summers you will find me reading Baseball America and going to baseball games. Towards the end of the summer I prepare for football season. I have been to several practices already and looking forward to more and scrimmages and of course the beginning of the season. Im hoping with this blog I meet more people and hopefully we can meet up at a game. I am always plenty early for games.