Sports Talking Heads Throw A Tantrum

Regarding "Tebow, Manziel can't run away from blitz of criticism" (Tuesday Sports C1), Steve Harvey documents at length the quotes by a raft of sports commentators intent on psychoanalyzing Johnny Manziel to death, blowing his supposed misdeeds out of proportion and then pontificating about his character flaws.  What followed was a veritable orgy of adjectives to describe Manziel, including "spoiled brat", "immature",  "coddled", "foolish", and my personal favorite: "narcissistic".  This last was a hoot, coming as it does from a Sports Talking Head. 

 

This largely talent-free pack is free to cover what they will, but I find it strange that so few of them had time to comment on Manziel doing what he's not paid to do: play football like nobody else.  Johnny Football passed for three TDs on five possessions in just over one quarter of play in the second half.  Amazing.

 

More importantly, the vast majority of these commentators totally ignored the real story of the day: the two-game suspension of four A&M Defensive starters for what was vaguely referred to as a "violation of team rules".  Note to Mike Sumlin: relax, you're off the hook; but then, you knew that didn't you? 

 

Bottom line, the Talking Heads seem to be so obsessed with milking the "Bad Boy" storyline for ratings, that they're willing to ignore everything else.  Harvey himself might have given us a clue as to why in an on-line article titled "A&M still restricting media’s access to Manziel".  Seems a bunch of needy reporters might be down on Johnny M because he either won't talk to them, isn't allowed to, or some combination of the two.  Harvey himself admits as much when he writes "I don’t believe he, the university or anyone else is doing Manziel a service" by subjecting reporters to "the silent treatment".

 

Note the intriguing qualification there: "he, the university or anyone else".  Clearly, that "anyone else" could only be coach Mike Sumlin, but Harvey, fearful of pushing Sumlin's buttons too much, can't bring himself to mention him by name.  He does, however, feel perfectly comfortable not just mentioning Johnny Manziel by name, but also diving to the very bottom of the Pundit barrel to mine negative comments about the irrepressible Johnny Football.  How low did he go?  He actually included comments from Matt Millen, arguably the most deservedly reviled commentator in all of football. 

 

Millen's claim to infamy, as many of you know, was his stint as the CEO/general manager of the Detroit Lions in 2001, during which time he buried the franchise in a hole that it has taken a decade to dig out of.  He accomplished this by refusing to believe that there was any position worth drafting for other than wide receiver.  I'm not kidding about this: you can look it up. 

 

My favorite part of the article was where "former Dallas Cowboys scouting legend Gil Brandt" asked, rhetorically, "if Tom Brady would ever act that way."  You remember Tom Brady, that paragon of virtue; the guy who abandoned his pregnant girlfriend so as to take up with Giselle Bundchen?  So, Gil, let me see if I've got this straight: Poking the NCAA Mafia in the eye is Bad; very Bad.  Abandoning your pregnant girlfriend is not only Not Bad, but makes you a role model.

 

Yes, Heaven forbid that somebody in the Media is not given exactly what they want, when they want it.  They may not crap their pants like a bunch of babies anymore, but that's not going to stop them from crapping all over somebody else.

Pete Smith
Cypress, TX