Johnny Manziel: The villain we love

Phase No. 3: Disparage their Allegiance

Accept that his collegiate program has virtually the least likelihood of competitive success in the seasons subsequent his arrival. He’s redshirted the first semester, and when Texas A&M makes the decision to jump conferences from the Big 12 to the SEC, critics gag it will actually improve the quality of the old conference. Watch him stand on the sidelines while his team stumbles to the finish line of a 7-6 record, salvaged only by a win in the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas against an opponent who hasn’t won a bowl game in 63 years.

Read as critics lambaste his team, the fraudulent associate of the most powerful conference in college football.

When spring comes, the coaching staff slots him as “a second-string with a chance to become third.” By mid-August, however, he earns the starting spot. His precursor? Ryan Tannehill, the first-round pick of the Miami Dolphins. Watch as Manziel balloons into the first freshman quarterback to start for Texas A&M since 1944.

Phase No. 4: Break Them Until They Dress the Part

When 19-year-old Manziel is pushed repeatedly, he eventually pushes back.

Near the end of June 2012, witness Manziel attempting to cover racially insensitive remarks made by his inebriated friend, leading to an altercation. When 19-year-old Manziel is pushed repeatedly, he eventually pushes back. This might be something, you begin to think. Fake identification later – one being a Louisiana driver’s license claiming he’s 21 years old – and he spends the night in jail.

Head coach Pat Sumlin’s policy of not allowing freshman to give media interviews keeps Manziel from any semblance of reasoning or apology.

Not that there would’ve been any, he was a college student looking to drink underage – a not uncommon occurrence. The audio is never released to the public, but act like you were there, it’ll make you appear more justified when endorsing his villainy.

Phase No. 5: Stomach Their Resolve

His first game as a starter is slated for the end of August, but Hurricane Isaac sweeps it away. Instead, he faces the No. 24 Florida Gators in a conference game carrying far more weight. He throws for a season-low 173 yards and runs for just 60 (second-lowest of the season). They lose.

A month later, stand perplexed as he breaks the 43-year-old total offense record set by Archie Manning. Two weeks after that, watch him break it again. The following Monday, he’s everyone’s Heisman favorite.

In Tuscaloosa, he accounts for 345 of his team’s 418 yards of offense and forms the only blemish on Alabama’s national title run. When you are retyping your damnation headline from months prior, look on as he proceeds to part the red sea: single-season record for offensive production in the SEC with 4600 yards, winner of the SEC Freshman of the Year Award, College Football Performance National Freshman of the Year Award, and the first freshman ever to win the Davey O’Brien Award and the Heisman Trophy.

When you run out of adjectives to describe his first season as starter for the Aggies, think harder. Consider how you can spin a narrative stigmatizing him, it’ll generate more reads. You settle on providing him a moniker: Johnny Football.

The matador of one of the nosiest carnivals in sport has arrived, and you can’t wait to see him catch the inevitable gore.

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Phase No. 6: Circulate “Red Flags”

In the aftermath of the most successful year of his entire life, Johnny Manziel coasts. You knew this would happen. You start to get excited. This glides him out of the Manning Passing Academy due to drinking and consequently oversleeping, and a fraternity party at the University of Texas-Austin.

How could he think about drinking at such a highly regarded camp? Why would he attend a party at a rival school? Johnny Manziel is reckless.

Forget that Manziel is someone who happens to be in college. It’s not an excuse. His rationale for wanting to enjoy himself alongside his superstar-infused entourage just makes it easier. Deliberate whether you want to include the copious amount of beer bottles and profanities hurled at Manziel like nooses as he exits the party. Decide not to involve them in the story.

Pair this with a tweet that goes viral detailing Manziel’s distaste for the parking protocol in College Station and his recent aversion to the community. It’s perfect. The rapid conflagration licks at his heels. You know it’s just a matter of time before it envelops him.

Days before the tweet, Paul Manziel, Johnny’s father, bought him a black Mercedes-Benz. Johnny had wanted it for years. It was keyed on campus not a week later. Look past this and the countless collegiate athletes clamoring for financial compensation for much of the last decade, and vehemently protest Manziel in the wake of an autograph scandal. Watch as the rumor dissipates and he’s suspended for half a game against Rice University. Light punishment, you think. Regardless that he doesn’t have a say in the suspension’s intensity, publish how he escaped significant ramifications from the NCAA.