Required Reading: Truth, Justice, and Johnny F#@%ing Football

Johnny Manziel Texas Monthly cover story - Sept. 2013.

If the mood around town is any indication, Johnny Football just might be the messiah. But before his Heisman and his Alabama smackdown made him Johnny Football, he was Johnny Manziel – a highly recruited, nervously energetic ball of pigskin clobber from Kerrville, Texas.

This Texas Monthly profile from September 2013 traces the rise of Texas A&M’s favorite son from his boxer-heavy family of Texan oil magnates to his victory over Alabama. The final line of the piece, penned by S.C. Gwynne, begs the question we in Cleveland are now asking: “As the season begins, the question hovering over Johnny F—ing Football is the same question that’s always hovering over Johnny F—ing Football: What the hell is the kid going to do next?”

Highlights below. Read the full article here.

 Manziel the super-child: “When he was in seventh grade, he could stand on the 50-yard line, take a crow hop, and throw a football through the goalposts. He was descended from a long line of ferocious competitors – boxers and football players and drag-boat racers and cockfighters and scratch golfers and people who hated to lose even a friendly card game with their own children.”

Manziel the viral superman: “Everything he touches, bad or good, goes uncontrollably viral. On the football field, he cannot be stopped, and off the field, the stories and pictures and rumors about him that spread throughout our hyped-up, 24/7, crazy-making news cycle cannot be stopped either. One year ago, he was unknown; today he is a kind of mythical creature. It makes you wonder, What planet did this kid come from?”

Julius “Juju” Scott, former offensive coordinator at Tivy High School, on Manziel the enigma: “‘Johnny Manziel is a red-blooded American young man,’ says Scott, with whom Manziel still has a close relationship. ‘He is not superhuman, he is not a saint, he does not have a halo. He is subject to the temptations everyone else is. But he is a great person. He has a genuine love for his teammates and coaches. I have never spoken to him on the phone when he didn’t end the conversation saying ‘I love you, Coach.’ He has never not said it.’” 

And now: Manziel the Brown.