Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel talks with reporters during the Southeastern Conference football Media Days in Hoover, Ala., Wednesday, July 17, 2013.HOOVER, Ala. – Maybe winning the Heisman Trophy was the easy part.
Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel’s tumultuous offseason continued Wednesday at the Southeastern Conference’s media days, as the redshirt sophomore was grilled repeatedly about decisions he’s made since winning college football’s top individual award last December. Manziel told hundreds of clustered reporters that he’s a 20-year-old trying to handle the spotlight, and that spotlight followed him as he left the league extravaganza for a flight to Los Angeles to attend the ESPY Awards.
“I never realized the magnitude of it,” Manziel said of his abnormal life after the Heisman. “People told me, and I had heard it time and time again, but it’s one of those things that you don’t really understand until you go through it and deal with it. My situation was so different, because nobody had come back with three years of eligibility left.”
Manziel was an unknown nationally when he was arrested in June 2012 for his role in a bar fight and for failing to properly identify himself to College Station police. He was suspended from the team but later reinstated by coach Kevin Sumlin, who wound up unleashing a 6-foot-1, 200-pounder who threw for 3,706 yards and rushed for 1,410 as the Aggies roared to an 11-2 debut season in their new league.
Texas A&M capped its surge with a 41-13 thrashing of Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl, but Manziel was photographed in the nights that followed holding a liquor bottle and a wad of cash. Those were the start of his 2013 incidents, which continued this past Saturday when he left the Manning Passing Academy early after missing some scheduled assignments.