The Johnny Manziel saga keeps rolling on.
The Ticats, in a move that was as inevitable as He-Men beating Skeletor, announced that they made the former Heisman-trophy winner a contract offer prior to the league’s January 7 deadline.
The team now has a full year to ink him to a contract, but that part may prove more difficult than first thought after the comments made by Manziel’s agent, Erik Burkhardt, on Monday.
But the end of this whole things seems like it cannot come soon enough for some fans and pundits.
The word I would use best to describe my reaction to all of the Johnny Manziel news is: Bored. Sign or don’t sign let’s just move on please. #CFL
— Dave Campbell (@Dave_CHED) January 7, 2018
Preach. If I didn’t feel obligated not to I’d’ve muted the word “Manziel” on twitter a long time ago. #Ticats #CFL https://t.co/39MpWywHPo
— John Hodge (@JohnDHodge) January 7, 2018
And that is just a small sample. Check the replies under Dave Campbell’s tweet. It shows that plenty of people have crossed into boredom when it comes to Johnny Manziel.
But this is what you wrought when your wishes for public neg lists are met. I don’t mean to sound accusatory, but this is the type of stuff you are going to have to put up with year after year if you want, as many fans and pundits do, the negotiation lists made public.
While Manziel’s case is a more high-profile one than most players who reside on the nine neg lists across the league, he is far from the only known name to be on neg lists recently. Remember Vince Young? He was on the Riders’ neg list and if you don’t think we would have seen the same public circus with him that we are seeing with Manziel had we known well in advance that he was on the Riders’ list then you are naive.
Being more transparent is something the CFL needs to get better at, but transparency also isn’t as clean as, “Well, now we know and everything is hunky dory.” There is a downside to knowing as well.
This has been one of the most newsworthy off-seasons in recent memory and the Johnny Manziel story has been a major reason for that.
But if you want the neg lists public, and you want to know who teams can negotiate with, this is what you will need to get used to. Public negotiations, especially with high-profile players and especially if those high-profile players happen to play quarterback, are going to be the norm. You are going to see more things like what has happened between the Ticats and Johnny Manziel, not less.
But if you find yourself fatigued by the constant Johnny Manziel news, then maybe you should reevaluate whether you actually want the neg lists public or not.
