For those of you who may not know, Johnny Manziel, a redshirt freshman quarterback for Texas A&M won the Heisman Trophy last season (the first freshman to do so) and guided the Aggies to an 11-2 record and a no. 5 finish in the AP Poll.
I'm reminded of this nearly every day because Manziel's exploits, both on the field and off, are meticulously documented through social and traditional media. America can't get enough of the legend of Johnny Football. That's right, grown men are unabashedly and unironically calling a 20-year old kid "Johnny Football" (Johnny Fucking Football, if you're not into the whole brevity thing).
Since winning the Heisman and beating Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl. Manziel has been spotted sitting courtside at various sporting events, earned a new Mercedes, took in Mardi Gras in New Orleans, done his level best to avoid contact with actual Aggie fans, was declared the "King of Cabo" by TMZ and met rapper/former Degrassi hero Drake. (I bet he calls him Aubrey).
Johnny Manziel is America's hero. He's the rootinest, tootenist quarterback since Broadway Joe. He's living the dream of every poor schlub with long dashed d-1 aspirations. He's got talent, fame and, apparently, unlimited access to basically everything.
Think on that readers, dwell on that, dwell on the fact that Manziel basically exists as a youthful surrogate for your average football fan.
Now... imagine if Manziel was black.
Did I just blow your mind? Did I just go Toure on your ass?
Ok, so don't actually imagine the Johnny Manziel is black - that's a weird and unproductive thought exercise.
Instead imagine that, out of nowhere, a black freshman quarterback put on an electric season, won the Heisman trophy and then proceeded to party his ass off for the ensuing four months - popping dom in the club with his parents, driving an expensive car and trolling his own fanbase.
There would be mass hysteria! It's pure, unadulterated gloryboyism!
Imagine with me, if you will, if that same athlete had been arrested only a few weeks prior to the start of the season for scrapping in a bar district and using a fake ID? (It should be noted that Manziel missed no playing time for this, and his punishment was handled internally).
Why he'd not only be a glory boy, but also a thug! He'd be no good to anyone. Awarding him the Heisman trophy would be a disgrace to the good name of the Downtown Athletic club. (Gregg Easterbrook would personally bar the doors to the event).
"But Kyle," you say, "we're living in post-accidental racist America. Surely you're trying to make mountains out of molehills?"
I counter, "Bullshit."
There was another electric young quarterback who recently came out of nowhere to destroy SEC offensive records and win a Heisman Trophy. Like Johnny Manziel, the fans have also given him a charming nickname.
Perhaps you're familiar with $cam Newton?
Newton's no innocent (he was kicked out of Florida for stealing a laptop and someone in has family probably received a hefty sum for delivering him to Auburn), but he certainly doesn't deserve the amount of vitriol that is routinely leveled at him via sports radio and online forums.
You may argue that Cam is actually castigated because he allegedly took money to play at Auburn and thus violated the romanticized notion that all college players are just dedicated "student-athletes" playing to lift the spirits of their fellow young scholars. If intimations of untoward behavior are all it takes to stain an athlete forever, I point toward Manziel's sudden influx of discretionary cash and priority access to basketball games. After I'm done pointing at that, I'll point toward A&M's own illustrious history.
(Ahem...)
But, if you still think Cam is a false equivalency, turn instead to former Oklahoma State star (and apparent nightclub enthusiast) Dez Bryant. Prior to being drafted into the NFL, Bryant was asked by Miami Dolphins' GM Jeff Ireland if his mother was a prostitute. That question is not only utterly inappropriate, but also oh wow yeah kind of racist.
Even more egregious than Ireland's questioning was the Palm Beach Post's Ben Volin claiming that Bryant's recent behavior justifies what Ireland asked. Go home America - clearly racism is solved.
"Ok," you concede, "maybe there is a little bit of double standard. Maybe black athletes are more highly scrutinized and more harshly judged than white ones, but why single out Johnny Football?"
Let's delve back into that arrest report from earlier:
Seaton says an officer on bike patrol intervened to break up a fight between Manziel and McKinney. McKinney told the officer that Brant, Manziel's friend, called him a racial slur and he approached
Brant. Seaton says Manziel then shoved McKinney and the two exchanged punches.
The arrest that kicked off the legend of Johnny Football all started because Manziel felt that he was honor-bound to defend his friend's right to degrade a passing pedestrian with a slur.
Of course, that's all dependent on whether or not the police report is true. It's possible that McKinney embellished the story, or that Manziel didn't hear Brant say what he said.
Regardless, it's odd to me that no one in the national media has asked about this particular part of the incident, if only to get a good soundbite of Manziel admonishing such behavior.
Instead, it's swept under the rug, it's not something that's fun to talk about.
Just like it's not fun to talk about the incredible chasm between the way in which Manziel is received and the way previous, black, college superstars have been received.
It's a difficult thing to write about. First, one must prove that there is a clear difference in public perception - which is pretty hard to do - and even then, the type of person who doesn't want to think about these kind of things will claim that there is no difference and that the writer is merely "race-baiting" (the preferred phrase of anyone avoiding introspection for the past forty years).
Beyond that, what purpose does such an observation actually serve? It tells us that football fans may be racist (however inadvertently) and may have a selective bias about whether or not an athlete's behavior offends him or her, but that's not news.
What does the legend of Johnny Football tell us about America?
I think the most basic (and, again, not unexplored answer) is that white behavior is still very much held up as normative. When a black athlete indulges in the perks that come with talent it's seen as aberrant and detrimental to "The Game" - the sport-above-sport from which all punditry flows.
When a white athlete partakes in similar indulgences, he is praised for having fun out there and doing what anyone would do in his situation.
Of course, my conclusions about all of this could be wrong, but I'm dead certain that the way we're ignoring this double standard is a black eye on sports journalism as a whole.
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