Tag: Johnny Manziel

#RushHourRap – Jack Harlow – Tyler Herro

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A little Friday afternoon #RushHourRap bringing you into the weekend even though most of you are probably only commuting from the desk in your bedroom to the couch in your living room. Doesn’t mean we can’t crack a few crafties on a Friday night with some new tunes though.

Jack Harlow blew onto the scene when he dropped Whats Poppin earlier this year with one of the catchiest beats I’ve heard all year. Well now he’s back with Tyler Herro, named after the rookie Miami Heat sniper who you may remember for the assault he committed against my Boston Celtics. The song itself has some sneaky one liners that are super relevant during these UNPRECEDENTED TIMES.

Can’t touch me, I got instincts
Locked in the house, but I’m plottin’ things

I came home nice, but I’m goin’ back mean
I’m ’bout to globe-trot when they know a vaccine

Is it a little early in his career for Tyler Herro to have a rapper name a song after him? Maybe, but Herro played at Kentucky, where Harlow is actually from so the connection makes sense. Not to mention, Herro has the best drip here. So now he’s got a song to match.

Hopefully Herro’s career goes better after having a rap song named after him than Johnny Manziel’s did once Drake made him a rap anthem with Draft Day.

The AAF Has Officially Folded. We Hardly Knew Ye

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SI – The Alliance of American Football will suspend football operations on Tuesday, reports ProFootballTalk. The league is just eight weeks into its inaugural season.

SI’s Albert Breer reported AAF team officials have a conference call with the league office at 1 p.m. ET. Breer reported there’s a perception inside the league that AAF majority owner Tom Dundon bought a bought a stake in the league for the gambling app being developed with one source saying, “Dundon got the technology he wanted and he’s now minus one rather large headache.” SI’s Conor Orr reported league heads were stunned and still working on a solution.

According to ProFootballTalk, the league is not folding yet but it is heading that way.

The writing has been on the wall for a while now as I’ve already written a few blogs over the past month about the AAF nearly going out of business and it’s barely Month 3 of the league’s lifespan. Welp, that’ll do it for the AAF apparently, who is heading the way of the dinosaur.

I won’t rehash the same things I said in my last blog on this, but here’s what I had to say on a league not having a plan to make it through even one season:

“Who is running these leagues? Obviously we’ve seen football leagues come and go over the past 20 years as the NFL has maintained its stranglehold on consumers’ attention without even lifting a finger. Most of these leagues fail because its just morons running the business side of things it would seem.

In marketing they say the average person needs to see an ad or a brand message seven times before it sticks. Now apply that to the AAF. How many AAF games do you think the average sports fan has watched? One? Maybe two? The AAF *had* to be prepared for slow adoption, otherwise it was a stupid business venture.”

But then there’s that tidbit from Bert Breer’s report that Tom Dundon, the Carolina Hurricanes owner that invested $250M to save the league last month, has basically sold the league not for its football but for it’s technological IP.

If thats true that is wild and I can imagine the other owners are bullshit. Those other owners probably feel swindled for paying to build up this football league only to have an investor come in and sell the whole thing for parts. But hey thats what happens when you sell majority ownership to a billionaire; you give up control. It’s fascinating just because I’ve never heard of anything like it. For all of its failings, the AAF was at least trying out innovative things, like the makings of a gambling app apparently.

Then on the other side of the Football Leagues Competing With the NFL coin is Vince McMahon who smells blood in the water now.

“Vince McMahon, who plans to give the XFL another shot next year, has sold $272 million worth of WWE stock, and company filings say that money will primarily go toward the XFL..McMahon has said he’s ready to spend $500 million over the first three years of the XFL to get the league off the ground, suggesting that even if the league struggles to gain traction at first, he’ll stick with it rather than pulling the plug after one season”

Vince seems to be pretty confident, cocky some would say, that he has fixed the issues that plagued the XFL the first time around. Despite the fact that a very similar concept just failed spectacularly, Vince has doubled down and is apparently ready to pour $500 million into the XFL.

Who knows if the XFL will be any more successful than the AAF, but I’ll tell you one thing, Vince will not fail because of a lack of marketing and promotion. Thats his bread and butter so don’t be surprised to see mass media promotions and gigantic billboards featuring Johnny Football, maybe Colin Kaepernick and whatever other fringe NFL players with a big name that they can find. Either way, this whole 2-3 year drama of new football leagues popping up and dying off will be a fascinating case study of monopolies in American business as the NFL crushes these competitors without even lifting a finger.

Speaking of Manziel, he’s the voice of reason and restraint here today, which was refreshing to see. My man is once again a free agent and as I’ve said before, it’s probably XFL or bust for his football career at this point.

The AAF is Once Again in Danger of Going Out of Business

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Update: They finally did go out of business. 

 

ESPN – The majority owner of the Alliance of American Football told USA Today Sports that league is in danger of folding without help from the National Football League Players Association. Tom Dundon, who became the AAF’s chairman last month, told USA Today Sports in a recent interview that the NFLPA is not cooperating with the AAF by refusing to allow the first-year league to use young NFL players.

“If the players union is not going to give us young players, we can’t be a development league,” Dundon told USA Today Sports. “We are looking at our options, one of which is discontinuing the league.”

Dundon said he expects to make a decision about the league’s future over the next two days…The eight-team AAF, billed as a development league, kicked off the weekend following the Super Bowl. The league is seven games into its 10-game regular season.

What kind of business model pumps its own tires as much as the AAF did prior to launching only to make it barely 2 months before nearly going out of business TWICE? In case you forgot, they almost couldn’t make payroll in Week 2 of the first season. Who is running these leagues? Obviously we’ve seen football leagues come and go over the past 20 years as the NFL has maintained its stranglehold on consumers’ attention without even lifting a finger. Most of these leagues fail because its just morons running the business side of things it would seem.

In marketing they say the average person needs to see an ad or a brand message seven times before it sticks. Now apply that to the AAF. How many AAF games do you think the average sports fan has watched? One? Maybe two? The AAF *had* to be prepared for slow adoption, otherwise it was a stupid business venture.

First off, if the AAF’s thinly veiled expectation was for the NFL to welcome them with open arms and create yet another item on their budget sheet then they were sorely mistaken. Sure the NFL needs a minor league system….but they already have one.

It’s college College Football.

Does College Football’s love of wishbone offenses, pistol offenses, air raid offenses, shotgun only offenses, and run pass option offenses prepare players for the NFL? Well five years ago I would have said no, but now…um yea it kind of does. So many coaches are taking College Football offensive plays, concepts, and entire schemes and running them as is in the NFL now. Belichick does it, so does Andy Reid, Matt Nagy, Doug Pederson and Sean Payton.

So if the AAF was hoping to be a way of preparing young players for the standard operating procedure in the NFL, well then they’re fucked because the market has shifted.

To just expect this league full of no name players would be a mega hit from Day 1 is so shortsighted it’s almost funny. Did anyone in that league go to business school? Isn’t Bill Polian supposed to be one of the smartest football execs ever? Yet somehow they don’t have a plan to make it through even one full season without fears of going out of business?

I was texting back and forth with Mattes about this story and he summarized his opinion succinctly, if not spitefully, after getting roasted by AAF Reddit for somehow not believing in this league:

“As Dashboard Confessional once said: I AM VINDICATED.” – Mattes

Real talk though, this is not a good turn of events for my guy Johnny Manziel. After flaming out in two different football leagues, it would be some shit luck for the third one to just straight go out of business. Looks like it’s XFL or bust baby.

 

Johnny Manziel May Start This Weekend and Officially Launch My AAF Fandom

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Yahoo – Johnny Manziel is in contention to make his gridiron return after signing for the Alliance of American Football’s Memphis Express.

The 26-year-old quarterback has been given a chance at redemption following ill-fated spells with the Cleveland Browns in the National Football League and for the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League.

Having signed on Saturday, Manziel practised with his new team-mates on Monday ahead of the upcoming clash with Birmingham Iron.

An opening for Manziel may have emerged following an ankle injury to starter Zach Mettenberger, with head coach Mike Singletary having turned to third-string option Brandon Silvers rather than returning to the dropped Christian Hackenberg.

Oooooooooooohhhhhhh.

It was actually a lot more difficult to find CFL games streaming than I had originally anticipated, but it didn’t matter in the end as Johnny Manziel didn’t really play much and then got injured and then got booted from the league. Is it mildly concerning that Manziel has now flamed out in two consecutive football leagues? Mildly. But as the saying goes: third times a charm.

Before I get any further into this though, how about Christian Hackenberg? The former SECOND ROUND DRAFT PICK of the NY Jets couldn’t even beat out that stiff from LSU Zach Mettenberger, let alone the infamous Brandon Silvers who I’m not convinced is an actual person.

After a rocky first season for the AAF in which Mattes dumped all over the league, and then shortly thereafter got roasted by AAF Reddit (it’s a thing)

and of course the story of how the league almost went bankrupt in Week 2. All that combined with a lack of any real juice I just have not been able to get into it. Hell I was watching the start of a game last weekend and the announcer literally said the name of the league wrong in the introduction. I will say it is perfect Saturday day drinking background fodder at the bar though.

But now? My man Johnny Football may be making his debut right where he belongs back in the good old US of A? Who cares that he literally signed with the team less than a week ago. The AAF defenses cannot be that complex. Just get Johnny out there and let him do his thing. This is exactly what I needed to launch my AAF fandom and dare I say it purchase an AAF jersey. Do they actually sell AAF jerseys? Well if they do I can tell you that a Manziel #2 Memphis jersey is v high on my wish list

Johnny Manziel Released, Barred from Playing in CFL for Violating His Contract. Sigh.

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ESPN – The Montreal Alouettes released quarterback Johnny Manziel on Wednesday, saying he “contravened the agreement which made him eligible to play” in the Canadian Football League. The CFL said Manziel is not eligible to sign with another team in the league, which had his full rights for two seasons.

“We are disappointed by this turn of events. Johnny was provided a great deal of support by our organization, in collaboration with the CFL, but he has been unable to abide by the terms of his agreement,” Alouettes general manager Kavis Reed said in a statement. “We worked with the league and presented alternatives to Johnny, who was unwilling to proceed.”

It is unclear what Manziel did to violate the agreement with the Alouettes and the CFL.

Manziel, 26, played for the Alouettes last season in an attempt to resurrect his career. In eight games, he completed 106 passes in 165 attempts for 1,290 yards, with five touchdowns and seven interceptions. Montreal traded two players and two first-round picks to Hamilton last July for Manziel’s rights.

Next stop XFL? I don’t know what Johnny may have done here, but it’s probably not a great sign that a guy with a long and checkered past filled with drinking and drug problems randomly gets cut on a Wednesday afternoon.

Manziel has not played well in the CFL either, which was disappointing with the lesser competition he was facing north of the border, but he did suffer a concussion early on last season so that couldn’t have helped. Normally I would say this is probably the end of the line for a player, but as luck would have it not one but TWO new football leagues have recently sprung up as options.

It might be a little late in the season for a quarterback to jump into the AAF seeing as its already Week 3 of a 10 game season, but hey bums like Christian Hackenberg are getting benched as we speak so  you never know.

However…the XFL begins play in 2020. You know Vince McMahon loves a star and the bad boy persona of Johnny Football could be the perfect poster child for the XFL’s inaugural season. With just under a year until XFL play begins it would give Manziel a full offseason to get in shape, learn the playbook and ingratiate himself with a new team. All of which is a moot point if he is dealing with some bigger life problems. Who knows, but the guy was so fun to watch at A&M, I hope he gets his life back on track, even if it’s XFL or bust at this point.

Johnny Manziel Makes His CFL Debut Tonight

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Jonathan “Football” Manziel makes his CFL debut tonight for the Montreal Alouettes.

I have never been more pissed to have Red Sox Yankees tickets than I am tonight because god damnit I was going to find a way to stream this game.

After joining the Hamilton Tiger Cats this season, Manziel never saw the field, which as we debated could be bad or it could be the fact that the entrenched Hamilton starting QB was putting up NUMBERS. So I’m going to reserve judgement because I still think he can wreck this league, if not the NFL.

Then he was recently traded to Montreal, a team at the bottom of the league so it didn’t take long for the Alouettes to unleash the former Heisman winner.

I don’t think Buffalo Wild Wings streams CFL games so if anyone knows where I can watch some of that sweet, sweet Canadian futbol tweet me @The300sBoston

Johnny Manziel Traded to Montreal. Roadtrip SZN!

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ESPN – The Hamilton Tiger-Cats have traded quarterback Johnny Manziel to the Montreal Alouettes, reuniting him with the coach who recruited him to Texas A&M. Manziel, offensive tackle Tony Washington and offensive lineman Landon Rice were sent to Montreal in exchange for defensive end Jamaal Westerman, wide receiver Chris Williams and first-round picks in 2020 and 2022.

Has Johnny Football lit up the CFL like I had hoped? Not quite yet, but he hasn’t really had the opportunity to showcase himself. He didn’t even record a pass attempt with the Tiger Cats. Now is that a bad sign that he can’t beat out some CFL quarterback to get on the field? Maybe, but the guy in front of him was also putting up some crooked numbers:

“Masoli tied a CFL record with nine straight 300-yard passing games before the team’s Week 5 bye.”

So I would like to see him under center and running around like a madman before I make any assumptions because I think he can still ball.

Manziel now goes to Montreal where the Alouettes are currently coached by none other than Mike Sherman, the guy who first recruited Johnny to Texas A&M. If thats not a match made in heaven then I don’t know what is. This is a guy who went on the recruiting trail to bring Manziel in just a handful of years ago so he obviously likes the guy. Not to mention Montreal is terrible so there should be ample opportunity to get on the field.

“Manziel will try to improve an offense that ranks last in the league in points scored and rushing yards, is tied for last in turnovers, and is seventh of nine teams in passing yards. The Alouettes are 1-4 and in last place in the CFL’s four-team East Division.”

Oh and one more thing.

Yea, Montreal is a mere 5 hour drive from Boston, which means The 300s Does the CFL is a very, very real possibility. And if thats happens then you know its my duty to swipe a Johnny Manziel Montreal jersey on The 300s corporate card (Red’s Visa debit card).

I don’t exactly know when the CFL season runs until because this league is ass backwards in everything they do, but I’m already planning this roadtrip. Reminds me of the English Premiere League where they basically play for 10 months, crown a champion without any sort of playoffs, take 2 months off and then they’re back on the field and I’m back in the Green Briar having a Guinness at 9 am. Round and round we go.

Now the real question is, with so many choices, which Montreal Manziel jersey do I get? Decisions, decisions.

Terrell Owens Wants Back Into Football. Canadian Football.

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ESPN – Retired wide receiver Terrell Owens, soon to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, wants to return to the field. Owens, 44, activated a procedural window that requires the Edmonton Eskimos — who own his CFL rights — to offer him a contract or release him from their exclusive negotiation list within 10 days. Jason Staroszik, a Canada-based agent who is representing Owens on the matter, said Owens “100 percent” wants to play football again at the pro level. “He wants to play in the NFL,” Staroszik told ESPN. “But if he can’t, the CFL is the next-best option.”

Apparently Terrell Owens, the retired 44-year-old receiver who is being inducted into the Hall of Fame at the end of the month, wants back into football.

Canadian Football.

He hasn’t played since 2012 when he was cut by the Seahawks in training camp and there was also a short lived stint in the world famous Indoor Football League where he BALLED. OUT.

“Owens caught 35 passes for 420 yards and 10 touchdowns in eight games for the Wranglers.”

Soo its been a while since ya boy has been on the pitch. About 6 years if we’re counting. To put that into perspective, 6 years ago I was in between my first job out of college working in capital-J Journalism and working the door at a bar in Faneuil Hall. Some time has passed.

With that being said though, I always felt TO got hosed on his way out of the league. The guy was the diva of all divas and probably a complete pain in the ass for every coach and every quarterback he ever played with, but TO could ball. Even in his last season with the Bengals in 2010 when he 40 years old he caught 72 passes for 983 yards and 9 TDs. Thats goddamn impressive. That is a legit NFL receiver, regardless of age. And he never got another sniff in the league again. I’d be pretty fucking bitter about that too if I were him.

So he decided screw it, I’ll be the first active Hall of Famer to play since (???). Granted it is Canada, but hey it looks like Johnny Manziel may have started a trend with Comeback SZN and taken away some of the stigma of playing on the 110 x 65 yard field north of the wall.

TO has activated a “procedural window” with the Edmonton Eskimos, who own his CFL rights, so the Eskimos now have 10 days to either renounce his rights or offer him a contract.

Its hilarious how the CFL works. Since they are the bastard league of professional football, 99% of players with the ability to play in the NFL opt to play in the NFL over the CFL. The CFL still holds these supplemental drafts though so basically every top player (or popular name) that has played in the NFL has their rights owned by someone in Canada. Robert Griffin III, Baker Mayfield, Colin Kaepernick, Lamar Jackson, hell even guys like Tim Tebow and Vince Young were on these CFL negotiation lists before they made it all but clear they were done with football. Just in case any of these ever do decide to strap it up in Canada they’ve basically already been drafted.

TLDR; If TO does indeed sign with a CFL team then I think that locks in my long standing claim that I will need to figure out a way to pirate legally stream CFL games.

PS – Say what you want about the CFL, they’re nothing if not savy, savy social media users.

“[Owens] has continued to train as if he is an active player, and recently posted video to social media that indicated he is still running the 40-yard dash in under 4.45 seconds. The Eskimos added him to their negotiation list immediately after the post.“

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Johnny Manziel Currently Dominating in the CFL. Now How Do I Pirate (Stream) Canadian Football Games?

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Yahoo – Start with this when it comes to Johnny Manziel and his attempted return from self-induced football career disaster – the former Heisman Trophy winner has said all he wants is a chance to play, and faced with no NFL opportunities, he’s grabbing one. In Canada, no less. Manziel, 25, announced Saturday morning that he has signed a two-year contract with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League. Conceivably, he could suit up for a preseason game against Toronto as soon as June 1.

Johnny Manziel is playing football again! And playing well at that might I add. Listen, I’ve gone back and forth on Johnny and whether I thought he’d play again, that time I thought he was a lock to join the Patriots, and then of course that time I boycotted the CFL when they blackballed Manziel. But we’re back baby!

It took me a minute to find the stats for Manizel’s first game because if I asked you right now, where do you go for CFL stats? What’s your go to source? Its not exactly on the back page of the sports section or in my ESPN push notifications.

I ultimately used my brain and just went to the Hamilton Tiger Cats website where I was swiftly and sharply reminded that this is Canada.

If I had just written that joke out you would have ridiculed my wit and said it was too predictable. Welp, thats literally the first thing I saw on this Canadian Football League website, god bless em those hosers love their Tim Hortons.

Say what you will about Johnny Football, but his game was created in a Canadian lab somewhere in the mountains of Alberta. (Does Alberta have mountains?) The wider fields, the larger endzones, the unlimited motion on offense; this is like college football on coke.  Anyways, on to the stats because as we all know stats don’t lie. And my dude Johnny Manziel is LIGHTING. IT. UP.

Can’t say I necessarily understand the vaunted three quarterback attack, but in his first CFL game Manziel had an 81% completion percentage going 9/11. Thats a pretty good start after only throwing footballs in the illustrious Spring League and at Texas A&M Pro Days. I have full confidence that Manziel will be wrecking that league in no time at all.

But the real question is; how do I pirate legally stream CFL games? I feel like thats some shit you’re going to need an old school black box from your dad’s shady buddy. So if anyone finds that stream deep down the Reddit rabbit hole tweet me @the300sboston to hook it up. Otherwise, we might have to expense a road trip on The 300s non-existent credit card to Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Canada in the name of content.

I think Johnny Manziel needs a new nickname though if he’s going to truly follow in the footsteps of another diminutive American QB and run shit in the CFL.

My vote goes to Johnny Maple. Bookmark this blog so when somebody with a little more venture capital steals it and makes a billion dollar t-shirt out of it, I want my royalties.