This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Mike Sykes.
I feel bad for college football fans who weren’t around for the epic of Johnny Manziel. His story was unlike anything you’d believe.
This dude came out of nowhere. A 6-foot-1, not even 200-pound quarterback just completely dominated the SEC as a Freshman. All in at the height of Nick Saban’s run with Bama.
I remember watching every moment of this and saying some version, “Yo, this is unreal” literally every weekend. That’s how wild it was. And, yet, here I am today finding out that the whole run was more unbelievable than I remember.
If you’ve seen an influx of Johnny Manziel content over the last few days, don’t worry. You haven’t slipped into a time vortex. Netflix released a documentary on the former QB detailing his run at Texas A&M and his downfall with the Cleveland Browns.
To be transparent, I haven’t watched it just yet. But, boy, it’s definitely on the list. Because — let me tell you — these snippets? They have been unreal.
You’ve probably seen everyone talking about the fact that Manziel didn’t watch a single second of tape in the NFL. Understandably so. That just seems impossible.
But, listen. If I run through Alabama’s defense like he did after not even looking at a playbook, I’m probably not watching game tape either. For what? I mean, have you seen this? What could anyone possibly tell Manziel after he went toe-to-toe with college football’s version of Goliath? There was nothing, man. Absolutely nothing.
And that was probably the worst thing for him.
He went to the NFL and struggled. He spiraled. He couldn’t compete on the next level where he essentially played better versions of Alabama each and every week. He never stopped partying. He never studied. That led to his downfall, which also led to mental health struggles and allegations of misconduct. Unfortunately, it also includes a suicide attempt that gets detailed in the documentary, too.
The Johnny Football era, man. I’m not sure we’ll ever see anything like that again. As fun as it was, that’s probably for the best.
Quick Hits: ESPN is opening a sportsbook … Free Kevin Brown … and more
— Yes, you read that correctly. ESPN is opening a sportsbook. Our Prince Grimes has the details. Fans certainly have concerns about this and, honestly, it’s hard to blame them.
— Orioles fans are not here for the team’s decision to suspend announcer Kevin Brown for, well, simply doing his job. Cory Woodruff has more.
— Julio Rodriguez had everyone fooled after robbing Fernando Tatis of this home run. Charles Curtis has more.
— Colin Cowherd remains the worst. Robert Zeglinski explains why.
That’s all, folks. Be kind to one another today!
