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For anybody that watches real-life crime shows like myself, the term ‘smoking gun’ should be familiar. While sometimes it does in fact literally mean a gun, it’s usually just a broad term used to describe irrefutable evidence linking a person to a crime. Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel has of course been accused of an NCAA crime – selling his autograph for profit.
As the days go by, the evidence continues to mount against Manziel. On Monday, sources linked the Heisman trophy winner to two more memorabilia dealers. This brings the total number of autograph dealers linked to Manziel to six.
The latest signings were said to have taken place in January after the National Championship game and then again later in the month in Houston. Manziel is rumored to have signed more than 1,500 items for each signing.
So with all of the brokers coming forward and a ton of circumstantial evidence against Johnny Football, you’d expect things to be very bleak for the QB. However, that’s still not the case.
Until there is a smoking gun in this case, Manziel is going to be fine. If he and his assistant/friend Nate Fitch weren’t smart enough to run this alleged business under the table with cash, then they deserve to go down.
I don’t have any problem with what Manziel has supposedly done. If true, all he’s really done is taken a little money out of the pockets of A&M and the NCAA. Big whoop. But regardless of that opinion, he would still be in direction violation of a very serious rule.
Even if the NCAA does end up linking Johnny Football to these illegal signings, I’m not convinced they would act on it. They might not like the negative publicity he’s drawn over the past couple of months, but Manziel is still the best thing going in all of college football. The powers that be want him on the field, so I think ‘smoking gun’ evidence would have to leak before anything is done about it.
Call it a conspiracy, crooked or whatever you want, but having Manziel on the field in 2013 is best for business.
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