If you don’t follow Football, you might be unfamiliar with the term “Draft Bust”. Basically, it’s what it sounds like: a player who is drafted early, only to turn out to be an utter disappointment. There is a long history of draft busts in the NFL.
For instance, there’s Jamarcus Russell, who was drafted by the Oakland Raiders after an impressive college career made him a coveted QB pick. Unfortunately, when Russell showed up to training camp, it quickly became obvious that the Raiders might have made a bad decision when he weighed in at 30 pounds overweight. After three years of interceptions and being perpetually overweight, Russell was cut. He tried to stage a comeback to the NFL until he was recently arrested for Codeine possession.
Then there have been players like Ryan Leaf, who after being drafted by the Chargers, basically refused to go to practice. He was fined numerous times for skipping mandatory team events to go play golf. As his playing suffered he began blaming teammates for his poor performance, and by all accounts made the locker room a nightmare. After being cut two years later, he became addicted to pain pills and was finally arrested in Montana for breaking into someone’s house to steal drugs.
Now it looks like Johnny Manziel is turning out to be the latest in the long tradition of superstar athletes partying themselves out of a job.
Drafted out of college, where he had already developed a reputation for being a bit too fond of getting into trouble, Manziel’s career with the Browns was marked with absences from practice and legal troubles, culminating in an assault charge being levied against him by his ex-girlfriend. In addition, no matter how much trouble he seemed to be getting himself into, no one could stop Johnny from partying.
After a number of warnings, including one after a drunken incident where he was in Las Vegas wearing a blonde wig and telling people his name was Billy, the Browns decided to let Manziel go.
Manziel has been attempting to get back into the league, but any chance at doing so would require him to straighten up and fly right, which he seems unable to do. Especially since old Billy seemed to have been back to his old antics in Vegas this weekend.
Celebrity Chef Mario Batali shared a photo with Manziel in Vegas on Instagram, making it a bad sign that Manziel might be off the wagon again. That’s not confirmed, so it stands to be seen if Manziel has a future in the NFL or not.
