SAN FRANCISCO — One of the hottest topics in the run-up to Super Bowl 50 this week has been a backup quarterback for one of the NFL’s worst franchises.
Such is the continuing fascination with all things Johnny Manziel.
Never mind that Sunday’s matchup features the expected league MVP in Cam Newton and what increasingly looks like the final game of Peyton Manning’s storied career.
Because celebrity is everything now and no one can resist gawking at a train wreck, the buzz instead continues to center on a soon-to-be-former Cleveland Brown who can’t seem to stay out of trouble.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell even fielded a question about Manziel during his annual Super Bowl news conference on Friday.
That meant someone who played in a grand total of 10 games for a 3-13 team last season was discussed on Goodell’s biggest personal media stage of the year, right alongside concussions, human growth hormone and other weighty topics.
Unfortunately, Manziel seems to be on everyone’s lips in the NFL for all the wrong reasons.
In rapid succession, thanks to yet another round of ugly accusations of domestic violence made against Manziel by his former girlfriend, questions about whether Manziel will end up with the Cowboys have been replaced by concern about whether he will even be alive much longer.
That’s not hyperbole, either. That’s straight from his father, who told The Dallas Morning News in a story published Friday that Manziel has refused to enter rehab facilities twice in the past week and also balked at being committed to a psychiatric hospital despite being described as suicidal.
“I truly believe if they can’t get him help, he won’t live to see his 24th birthday,” Paul Manziel told the paper.
Manziel’s problems only worsened Friday, when agent Erik Burkhardt made a public show of cutting ties with Manziel, followed by news that ex-girlfriend Colleen Crowley had gotten a restraining order and Dallas police announced they were opening an investigation of her abuse claims.
The agent’s statement was a sign of how bad Manziel’s football problems have gotten, because agents rarely — if ever — go public when parting with a client.
“It has become painfully obvious” that Manziel’s future “rests solely in his own hands,” Burkhardt said in a statement. “His family and I have gone to great lengths to outline the steps we feel he must take to get his life in order. Accountability is the foundation of any relationship, and without it, the function of my work is counterproductive.”
As a result, Manziel’s football career has taken a backseat to strong concern about his well-being. But Manziel might not have a career to fall back on unless he gets his life in order quickly.
The Browns already have told numerous people around the league they plan to release Manziel as soon as NFL rules allow early next month, and a league source said Friday that the Cowboys — long rumored to be Manziel’s next destination — have all but ruled out signing him.
At this point, it’s just not worth the trouble to sign a backup quarterback who will command an enormous amount of media attention and become a daily distraction to both coaches and teammates.
Manziel also continues to be in denial about the severity of his problems, telling TMZ Sports that his latest run-in with his ex-girlfriend “didn’t happen” and he is “completely stable, safe and secure.”
That’s far from the case. Manziel is a talented player who many in the league believe has a future in the sport if he can ever get his head on straight.
Whether Manziel has a future as a human being, sadly, is the more pressing question now.