The Most Unfairly Treated Man in College Football

     Johnny Manziel is to college football what J.R. Ewing was to the television show Dallas- the man
you love to hate.

     It is very rare that somebody will defend Manziel, but I will.  This past off-season Manziel faced an
incredible amount of scrutiny, some of it was his fault and some of it was blown out of proportion by

the media.  The only NCAA rule that Manziel
was accused of violating was accepting money for
signing autographs.  The NCAA investigated this
allegation and could not prove any wrong doing
on Manziel's part.  He was suspended for the first
half of Texas A&M's season opener against Rice.

     Another situation he was criticized for was being sent home from the Manning Passing Camp.  This was bad.  It was a great opportunity for Manziel to network and learn from other great quarterbacks as well as spread good will by teaching high school kids about the nuances of playing quarterback.  Also, he should have been there to respect some of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, he could have really helped his reputation with a good showing at the camp.  It was said that he missed meetings at the camp because he was "dehydrated".  Dehydration is often code for being hung over.  As a 20-year-old, he shouldn't be drinking.  It is against the law to consume alcohol, but lets be honest, he is only doing what almost every college kid his age is doing.

     Among other things that people had problems with Manziel over were playing in a golf tournament
and sitting court side at a Miami Heat game.  This is extremely blown out of proportion.  Manziel
comes from a wealthy family and who would turn down opportunities like those?  The answer is
nobody in their right mind.

  
     Right now everybody needs to back off of Manziel.  The media and fans
need to stop criticizing him and appreciate him.  We are witnessing greatness.
After almost beating Alabama for the second time in as many meetings, he has 
gained a fan in Nick Saban at least.  Last year Manziel became the first
freshman to win the Heisman trophy when he passed for 3,706 yards while
completed 68 percent of his passes and throwing 26 touchdowns to only nine
interceptions.  That is not even going into his rushing statistics which were unbelievable for a quarterback.  This year he has improved as a passer while still showing all of the elusiveness that makes him a special quarterback.

     A lot has been made of his off-the-field struggles but nobody can argue that no matter what is going on in Manziel's life, he shows up ready to perform on Saturdays.  Lately people have also been analyzing what type of quarterback Manziel will be in the NFL.  The style of play that NFL coaches are employing today gives him a better chance to succeed than he could have had in the past.  We all need to stop criticizing Manziel and over analyzing him, it is about time that we just enjoy the show.

Time to give up on Brandon Weeden

           I hate when we as sports fans overreact to situations but I believe its already time for the Cleveland Browns to give up on quarterback Brandon Weeden. 

            Weeden will turn 30 years old on October 14^th and is two games into his second season as an NFL starting quarterback.  He underwhelmed enough in his rookie season to find himself in an offseason quarterback competition with the painfully average Jason Campbell.  Through the first two weeks of his second year in the league, he has led the Browns to two losses, 16 measly points and what looks like yet another season in the AFC North cellar.  Oh yeah, he is also injured now. 

            The Weeden injury is a minor one, a sprained thumb that should only keep him out a week or so, but it just goes to show that it is always something.  More importantly is the opportunity cost.  In the college ranks you currently have Aaron Murray at Georgia, Tajh Boyd at Clemson, Teddy Bridgewater at Louisville, Brett Hundley at UCLA and even Johnny Manziel at Texas A&M who are all much more tantalizing options to be a franchise quarterback than Brandon Weeden.  The same could also be said Christian Ponder and Blaine Gabbert, but that is for another discussion. 

            We have seen what a good quarterback can do for a bad team.  Look no further than RG3 and Andrew Luck.  We have even seen that an exciting, yet not-so-talented quarterback can make an unwatchable team suddenly watchable (We’re talking about you Terrelle Pryor). 

           Weeden supporters will point to the fact that his top three pass-catchers are guys you 

probably haven’t heard of in Jordan Cameron, Davone Bess and Greg Little.  Not a good enough 

excuse.  Pryor has found a way to be exciting and win nearly two games with an even lesser 

receiving corpse.  In Cleveland, things are bad.  They might even want to gut the team, but 

there are a few bright spots like Josh Gordon, Barkevious Mingo and Trent Richardson.  The 

most important thing for a bad football team to do is to either get a quarterback who adds 

excitement or a quarterback who adds offensive production.  Weeden does neither and, as has 

already been written in this article, there are many quarterbacks in the college ranks who 

appear very likely to add at one or both of those things to an offense.