Johnny Manziel - An Aggie, NOT a representative of all Aggies!

I guess it's time I voice my opinion on Johnny Manziel/Football. I am hearing it from everyone lately since I am an Aggie. I've attempted to stay quiet but I am going to get up on a soap box for a second and then be done with it (hopefully!).

Last year was a blast for Aggie Football - a first in a very long time! I hardly threw anything at the TV! - especially when my undergrad years were the Dennis Franchione years and then grad school were the Mike Sherman years - OUCH!  We weren't too sure going into the 2012 season with a new coach & staff, a new quarterback, & a new conference how the Aggies would do. It was going to go 1 of 2 ways - the way it did (thank God!) or well let's face it, the season Missouri had in the SEC. Thankfully it was a season I was proud of, and many many Aggies everywhere were too!

Let me tell you the night the Aggies beat Bama, I lost count of the shots and drinks consumed celebrating! The only thing that could have been better was to be actually celebrating in College Station on North Gate.

However, since that wonderful season there have been A LOT (major understatement) of media attention around Johnny and none of it has been positive - with the exception of winning the Heisman trophy which was awesome. To his defense but not making excuses, no other Heisman winner has been this young (bringing immaturity) and had to deal with social media in this capacity. In today's world you know exactly what is going on with someone the moment it happens. Sometimes they post it themselves but with everyone having a smartphone with a camera, it allows anyone to post anything instantaneously and typically it's the posts you don't want to share. This explosion of social media and the way the world uses and utilizes it can be a recipe for disaster and boy has this gotten him in trouble too!

Here's my soap box - This 20 year old doesn't realize (at least I believe he doesn't by his actions) that he is not just representing himself and even the Aggie Football team, BUT he is representing the entire Texas A&M university, current students, facility and alumni in the eyes of the media & outsiders perspectives. The key here is the media & perspectives -  trust me he is an Aggie and bleeds maroon but he does not represent all Aggies as in who Aggies are; but currently he is the face of Texas A&M and that is a bit concerning to me. I wish him all the luck in the world and hope everything turns out for him, but currently he needs to grow up a bit faster than many 20 year olds do and realize that he's in the public eye now and there is nothing he can do about it!

Johnny Manziel is a household name now and the crazy thing is a year ago no one knew who he was, even in the state of Texas. Can you imagine being a 20 year old male college student and all this happening to you in less than a year?! I know I can't nor would I want all this to happen to me. Part of me wonders if he came along with the same football circumstances 10 years ago, would he get into the same media trouble?

My answer is NO solely based on social media. I'm not saying he would magically be an angel, but the total severity, the overall media trouble would decrease in my opinion solely due to less public exposure. I'm not sure by how much, but think of this:

•  Facebook launched on February 4, 2004 and it was only available to people with a registered college email address, in September 2005 high school students were added but it wasn't until September 2006 that it was opened to everyone. (source)
• Twitter launched on July 15, 2006, had only 400,00 tweets per quarter in 2007, grew to 50 million per day in 2010 and in December 2012 Twitter reported it had 200 million monthly active users (source)
• Instagram didn't launch until October 2010 and rose quickly to 1 million users by December 2010 but didn't reach 100 million user until April 2012, the same time frame that Facebook bought Instagram, and in February 2013 it announced it had 100 million monthly active users. (source)

How times have changed in just 10, even 5 short years! 

Overall I am tired of the text messages and comments people are making because I am an Aggie - "You better have your second string QB start warming up", "Why can't your QB wake up on time?", "Looks like your QB doesn't like A&M and wants to leave", and some of my favorites and probably the ones that upset me off the most, "Some school you've got letting him run around like that" or "Texas A&M allows their athletes to just do whatever they want don't they?!" This is what I mean - I am now directly associated to him because we are both Aggies, he is becoming the persona of an Aggie which is not true and I know first hand being a former Aggie Athlete that it's a well-rounded program that cares about it's athletes and does everything they can to help them succeed, however, they can't be the kid's parents too!

I've been trying to just stay oblivious to all of it because I don't want to get sucked in but lately it has been staring me in the face. The new Sports Illustrated just landed in my mailbox and who was on it - Johnny Football. I cant get away from it.

Lately I've read 3 articles that I thought are worth sharing:

1.) My husband emailed this to me with the subject line "Too Funny!" Click here to read the article. It's a fictional piece predicting the 2014 season based on his actions thus far. I pray that we don't lose to Ole Miss like this states but it has us beating Bama again and Florida in the SEC champs so I'll take that! It just speaks to what I have said, the kid doesn't realize that he represents so much more!

2.) I saw this shared on a friend's facebook wall. It's from ESPN and it appears it's a piece that was written speaking to Johnny's parents. I think it was suppose to help or maybe even be a cry out to Johnny but honestly I think it makes him look worse sadly. Click here to read it.

3.) Finally the S.I. article was actually decent. It was mostly unbiased and just laid out facts. There was some "explaining" on why Johnny has acted the way he has but there was some straight up call outs. I've yet to read any reviews on the article (a.k.a - www.texags.com) because I'm sure there is comments but my opinion was good article. Click here for the article. 

Wrapping up, I am hoping that the 2013 season just starts and he can focus on school and football - put a ball back in the kid's hands please!!! I understand he is a 20 year old and needs to have a life, but at this point he has been labeled "trouble" by the media so that's all they are going to report on him - sadly. Hopefully he will realize this and keep things on a lower key because no matter how much he wants it, a normal life isn't possible for him right now.  IDEA - Maybe he could volunteer more! I was the chair for a group called A.A.I. (Aggie Athletes Involved) while I was at A&M and I think this would be a great place for him to channel some energy. Maybe give himself some good PR but also for the group as well. Just a thought. :)

All in all - Gig 'Em Ags and let's BTHO of Bama again!! WHOOP!