Johnny Manziel isn’t completely delusional. Which is the closest thing to good news that he’s had all year.
Via the New York Post, an unnamed friend of Manziel said the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner knows that he won’t be playing pro football in 2016.
“He knows he’s hit rock bottom and he’s giving himself a year to get sober and get ready for football,” the friend said. “He wants to play again. He really wants to turn things around and make people proud of him again. It’s not going to end this way. He really wants to make that effort. He knows what he’s gifted with. . . . The spotlight got to him.”
The spotlight apparently still has gotten him; the Post reports that Manziel was recently spotted drinking on multiple occasions in New York. Manziel supposedly swore off drinking as of July 1.
So Manziel apparently intends to spend the next year turning his life around. Or maybe he’ll spend the next year talking about turning his life around but never actually doing it.
Manziel shouldn’t delay; every year, another class of rookies will enter the NFL, chewing up roster spots that could go to Manziel. And even if he does turn things around, he’ll need to convince a team to roll the dice on a guy who has proven to be unreliable and untrustworthy during his time in the NFL.