5 Reasons Why The NCAA Should Suspend Johnny Manziel For Life

5 Reasons Why The NCAA Should Suspend Johnny Manziel For Life

Johnny Manziel has been the most polarizing figure in sports since he broke onto the scene last fall.

Johnny Football, as we all like to call him, took college football by storm when he led Texas A&M to a Cotton Bowl win just a month after being the first freshman ever to win the Heisman Trophy.

That was just the beginning of the story. Since then, Manziel has been in the media spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Being a young kid, he spent his offseason doing what most college kids do, partying and having fun as much as possible.

And now that lifestyle is starting to catch up with him. At first the accusations of bad behavior were just of the immature type. He was constantly being caught partying with the wrong crowd or tweeting something inappropriate. And then the news broke that he may have, in fact, broken serious NCAA rules.

Manziel is facing the heat from the NCAA since stories broke that he allegedly received compensation for signing autographs. While many, myself included, think an adult should be able to accept money from anyone who wants to give it to him, the NCAA has clear rules that they cannot.

And so now Manziel's future college eligibility is in question. The NCAA has doled out heavy suspensions for much lesser violations in the past, so if the allegations against him are true we may have seen the last of Manziel on a college football field.

These are the five reasons the NCAA should suspend Johnny Manziel for life.

Ben Sullivan is an NFL writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @bensullivan52, "Like" him on Facebook and add him to your network on Google.

5. To Be Fair

I know, I know, life isn't fair. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try, and it certainly doesn't mean we shouldn't hold powerful institutions to a high standard.

The NCAA suspended Dez Bryant for the final 10 games of his college career at Oklahoma State for just lying about going to dinner. Not that going to the dinner was a violation itself, but he was punished that harshly for being so afraid of the draconian NCAA enforcement division that he lied about something he had every right to do.

So now the NCAA has painted itself into a corner. If they don't suspend Manziel, who is facing serious violations, for longer than Bryant, it just won't seem right.

4. He's Become Bigger Than The Game

Manziel's off-field antics have become legendary in the last few months. He parties with celebrities and attends more high profile events then anyone else. That in and of itself isn't a problem, but the fact that he brings so much attention on himself is.

College football is about history and rivalries, but when someone like Manziel puts himself above the action on the field he eventually begins to take away from the overall health of the game.

3. For His Own Good

Too much celebrity too soon can be a dangerous thing. Manziel is just the next in a long line of people, in sports or other public realms, who have had too much success too soon.

Success is a great thing. It allows for someone like Manziel to experience things that he wouldn't be able to otherwise, but those experiences can be detrimental too. In our modern era of media coverage young celebrities don't have the option of maturing at the same rate as their non-famous peers.

Much like most college football players, Manziel clearly wants a lifestyle more suited for a professional player. If the NCAA suspends him for life he can sit out one year, get his life together off the field, then enter the NFL more mature and ready to be a professional.

2. He (Allegedly) Signed Autographs For Money

This is the most obvious reason the NCAA should suspend him. The rule says you can't take money for signing autographs. Period.

Whether you think the rule is fair or not, and I think it's clearly not, it's still a rule.

If it turns out that Manziel took money to sign autographs the NCAA has to suspend him for a very long time.

1. To Send A Message

The NCAA, with its enormous and confusing rule book, has always had a hard time enforcing its rules. Those rules, which I agree with the majority of fans are ridiculous, are still on the books despite how much they take advantage of the young men and women who put so much money in other people's pockets.

The rules still say if you put any of that money in your own pocket you're doing something wrong. At this point it's becoming more and more difficult to argue that Manziel hasn't broken any of those rules.

If the NCAA wants to maintain any level of credibility, they need to send a message that players can't break the rules like Johnny Football.