By all indications, the Browns will release Johnny Manziel on March 9.
I pray he’s alive on March 9.
Last weekend’s incident that prompted the Fort Worth Police Department to use a helicopter to search for the quarterback after an ex-girlfriend expressed concern for his “well being” following their altercation showed that he’s moved way past the drunken party-boy stage.
Manziel has had alcohol and anger issues for years, issues that run deeper than the Browns’ pre-draft evaluation — and perhaps any other team’s — could have foreseen.
But a helicopter scouring the Dallas-Fort Worth area looking for the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner seemed to signal that Manziel has reached the depths of depression. No logic may come with that, only more desperate attempts by Manziel to numb his pain and escape whatever is haunting him.
If a former girlfriend feared for his safety, her claim suggesting that he might harm himself, so do I. The Fort Worth police didn’t write that off as the ravings of an upset young woman, they deemed them credible enough to take a seemingly unorthodox action.
Manziel’s father Paul said his own anger and immaturity cost him a chance at a pro golf career. Now he’s watching his son follow the same destructive path. In an Aug. 6, 2013, article that Wright Thompson wrote for ESPN The Magazine while Manziel was still attending Texas A&M, Paul Manziel admitted he expected the worst.
“Yeah, it could come unraveled. And when it does, it’s gonna be bad. Real bad,” Paul Manziel told Thompson.
“It’s one night away from the phone ringing and he’s in jail. And you know what he’s gonna say? ‘It’s better than all the pressure I’ve been under.’ ”
Two-and-a-half years later, Paul Manziel could have uttered those same words.
Saturday was Johnny Manziel’s second incident involving domestic violence and is still being investigated as a possible assault. The NFL is also looking into the matter. It comes on the heels of an Oct. 12 in-car fight with girlfriend Colleen Crowley in Avon that resulted in no charges despite Crowley telling police he pushed her head into the window and hit her a couple of times.
As more details of that day were revealed, many marveled that Manziel didn’t kill someone while speeding down Interstate 90. Such fears remain just as valid now.
His parents, Paul and Michelle, seem powerless to help him. The Browns’ player programs, his teammates and ex-coach Mike Pettine and his staff couldn’t get through to him. On Dec. 9, Pettine said the Browns didn’t realize the depth of Manziel’s issues when they drafted him 22nd overall in 2014.
“You see the reputation, what was out there,” Pettine said then. “I don’t think we anticipated that his problems, his issues, maybe how deep-rooted they were, the extent of it.”
At the time, most assumed Pettine was talking about Manziel’s alcohol abuse. Perhaps not.
“I don’t know where the anger comes from,” Paul Manziel told Thompson in the 2013 article. “I don’t think he knows. If it comes from his drinking, or if he’s mad at himself for not being a better person when he fails, when he fails God and his mom and me. If it makes him angry that he’s got demons in him. You can only speculate because you can’t go in there.”
Manziel needs to go in there. He needs another stint in rehab, needs to address his personal issues in therapy before even thinking of trying to rebuild his football career. But Manziel must come to that realization on his own.
Even with Browns executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown issuing a terse statement Tuesday that foreshadowed Manziel’s release when the new league year begins March 9, this might not be rock bottom for Manziel.
Another team, thinking it can fix him, could trade for him or claim him off waivers. Perhaps someone will ignore the almost-cartoonish headlines, the disguise in Las Vegas, the swilling of champagne on an inflatable swan, and believe he can at least be their backup quarterback.
Manziel would be better off if no one called, not in March, not in May, not in September.
Instagram photos and police reports don’t give a true picture of Manziel’s problems. Those lie deep in Manziel, insecurities or struggles he must lay out and deal with in a professional setting before he can find happiness. Not even the Dallas Cowboys’ Jerry Jones, who owns the team where native Texan Manziel dreams of playing, can bring him that.
I hope Manziel understands, and soon, before a father finds his fears for his son had another, more unfathomable end.
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at www.ohio.com/marla. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.