Sooner or later, someone was going to get around to comparing embattled New York Yankees' third baseman Alex Rodriguez to Texas A&M starting quarterback Johnny Manziel. Naturally, that someone had to be
The Boston Globe columnist and
Around the Horn panelist
Bob Ryan.
I'll save you the A*Rod stuff, as it's the usual regurgitation of blah, blah, blah, PEDs, blah, blah, blah, cheater, blah, blah, blah, fraud, blah, blah, blah...That you would expect from a
Boston Globe reporter about a New York Yankee. No mention of Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz'
alleged failed drug test in 2003, though. Shocking that.
As for JFF, it's the average "no one here gets out alive" attack on the hypocrisy of the NCAA policies on student athletes, and on Manziel.
"The Johnny Football thing is an insult to any intelligent person’s
intelligence. He signed his name 4,400 times out of the goodness of his
heart? He is so mobbed on campus that he must resort to taking online
courses? The “student” part of the laughable “student-athlete”
designation has any remote meaning to him? Oh, please.
There is nothing new here. It wasn’t too long ago that we were being
asked to swallow the idea that Cam Newton turned down money to attend
Mississippi State but went to Auburn at the 11th hour for nothing? It
was all worth it for Auburn. They lawyered up. They got their national
championship. They made their money. Cam did what he was hired to do and
moved on."
Cam Newton was paid? Does Bob know this for sure? Yo, Bob! Paul Finebaum on line five.
As for the argument that never ends about college athletes actually getting paid (legally and above-board, that is)...
"The question in this particular case is not, “Should college athletes
be paid?” That is a fair question, but not a relevant one in the case
of Johnny Manziel, who comes from a wealthy family. The question that
should be asked is, “Do some of these adults who worship college sports
have anything remotely resembling a real life?” Passion for a college
sport or particular institution is one thing. A mindless obsession that
puts any remote value on the signature of a 20-year-old college player
is another thing entirely."
Well, like a lot of background information about Manziel, even
how wealthy his side of the family is has come under suspicion recently. But that's neither here nor there.
"You know how Colombian drug dealers like to say that if Americans
(and others) didn’t hunger for their product, there wouldn’t be any need
to produce the drugs? Well, if those Texas A&M fans weren’t so
sickly obsessed with college football, Johnny Manziel’s signature on a
helmet would be worthless."
Comparing college football fans to drug addicts? That's low, Bob. Especially coming from a reporter who lives and breathes in the dead center of the Red Sox Nation. There's a lot of hypocrisy to dish out here, and that includes a nice healthy for Bob Ryan himself.
(via
The Boston Globe)
