Two years ago, Johnny Manziel spent more than 10 weeks in rehab in an effort to overcome addiction. It didn’t work.
Manziel now says he has managed to do it without professional assistance. Via Ed Werder of ESPN.com, Manziel claims that he has achieved sobriety on his own.
The first-round pick of the Browns in 2014 said his next goal is to “PLAY FOOTBALL,” and that he plans to do so in a “preseason game, anything, I don’t care what it is.”
So where will that happen?
"[I] only need one team to believe in me and I’ll do anything to make that a possibility,” Manziel said.
The first challenge will be to get an agent, because he’ll need someone who knows the right people in order to persuade someone to give him a workout, an offseason roster spot, and/or a position on the 53-man roster. Then, the challenge for that agent will be to work the phones and persuade someone to trust Manziel.
Trust ultimately will be the key for Manziel. Who will trust him to do the right things, say the right things, show up for work, be committed to football? The fact that he’s not regarded as a potential franchise quarterback will make it harder for anyone to justify taking the chance, because the benefit won’t outweigh the potential cost of doing business with a man who has become the poster child for all the things that football coaches don’t want in their locker rooms: laziness, lack of discipline, entitlement, lack of commitment.
With so many other players out there who haven’t done anything to put themselves in position to need a second chance, why should Manziel take a spot that could go to one of them? He has had his second chance, and he has squandered it. If he were more talented, maybe he’d get a third chance.
He’s not, and thus he likely won’t.
