HANGTIME
YOU COULD HAVE HAD JOHNNY Story & Commentary By L. Scott “HangTime” Hainline
J
ohnny Manziel will someday be considered the Babe Ruth of football. That’s in print two years ago (2012) and HangTime still stands by that statement to this day. Beyond his super-natural talents on the field, Johnny Football did the impossible. He made me a fan again. After 40-plus years in sports media, being a fan just wasn’t part of the equation. Didn’t really have a team to be passionate about, and the Cowboys winning ONE playoff game in 17 years with Jerry Jones trying to coach didn’t help at all. Sort of pulled for the Spurs because of Pop (coach Gregg Popovich) and his refreshing old-school ways that obviously work, but really didn’t care one way or another, like years ago. But then came Johnny Football. My mom would tell me about this kid at Kerrville Tivy High School and say, “You should come see him play.” Photo courtesy Cleveland Browns
Mama HangTime was talking about Manziel, and due to covering sports in the Houston area, I never got to see him as an Antler (Tivy’s mascot). Off to Texas A&M for Johnny Football, who sits out an entire redshirt freshman year (2011), and is way more than less off the radar. But that would end soon. Manziel won the starting job as a texasheartbeat.com
redshirt freshman (sophomore year in college - 2012) and started his first game against the Florida Gators, and even though it was an A&M loss, there was magic in the air. I started watching Johnny Football that day and have not stopped since. He had me screaming at the TV (hadn’t done that in years) in the 29-24 victory at #1 Alabama, and now we have DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket to watch the Cleveland Browns, who drafted Manziel with the 22nd overall pick in the 2014 NFL draft. And because the Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys passed on Johnny Football, we’re full-time Browns fans. The 21 teams that passed on Manziel will live to regret it, and some already do (see list at www.CouldHaveHadJohnny.com). It made my wife Sandi (Mrs. HangTime) cry when Jerry Jones didn’t pick Johnny, and even though she was a seriouslydevoted Dallas fan (the kind that makes you hate the Cowboys), she boxed all her Cowboys stuff and will not pull for them again (and she wears a Manziel’s Browns jersey very well). Now if Jerry ever trades for Johnny, well…stay tuned! Johnny Manziel will someday be considered the Babe Ruth of football, and whether it happens in Cleveland or somewhere else, you can bank on it! L. Scott Hainline - “HangTime” - covers Texas Hill Country sports & more for the Ranch Radio Group (The Ranch 92.3; 96 GUN 96.5; The River 106.1), and HillsHomePage.com.
Heart Beat of the Texas Hill Country
41