Troy Aikman, as it turns out, is just like the rest of us.
He was surprised Cowboys owner Jerry Jones could resist his own urge to draft Johnny Manziel too.
“I thought there was a real good chance if he fell to the Cowboys’ pick that he would take him,” Aikman said, via Travis Brown of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I understand why they didn’t. It would have certainly added a lot of excitement around here, but I don’t think it would have been best for the club, certainly not in the short term. There’s a lot of other needs, as we saw last year, that this team has, so it was probably the right thing not taking him, but I was a little surprised.
“I think that had to have been a difficult decision for Jerry.”
Aikman said he expects Manziel to be successful — with the big provision — if he stays focused on his job.
“I think when the time comes for him to get serious about football and put in the time, I’m confident he’ll do that,” Aikman said. “He’s going to have to do that if he’s going to be successful. There’s no shortcuts in this league to becoming a great player. Cleveland has invested a lot in him and expects a lot from him, and I’m sure he recognizes that.”
“He likes to have a good time, I know that, but if he can stay focused on football and commit himself, which is what it’s going to require, I think he has a chance to be really good.”
Aikman knows all about the power of the star, particularly since he helped create it, so it’s no surprise that he was as surprised as we were that Manziel wasn’t a Cowboy today.