Winston and Manziel Remain Connected

I did take statistics back at Bergen Catholic High School but that was a long time ago. I do know that the series of off-the-field issues that now link the past two winners of the Heisman Trophy, Johnny Manziel and Jameis Winston, to each other are clearly embarrassing to the players, their families their schools and college football. I just do not remember how many of the same type of thing forms a "cluster". And certainly the legal problems that swarmed around both players are quite different in nature and the purpose of this post is to neither point fingers or offer excuses. I want to make it clear that the coddling and over-promotion of young, amateur athletes--with the treatment of talented quarterbacks up there with the worst of it--is an underlying issue here and one that not only is not being addressed but is actually getting worse. Manziel as a product of the Texas High School football system has been considered more important than his classmates for a very long time. The way his family circles wagons around him when he makes mistakes with no sense of him bearing responsibility shows that he has a home situation that is contributing to his sense of entitlement beyond the high levels of such a sense for being a star QB from Texas. That the media hype train latched onto him during his redshirt freshman year at Texas A&M exacerbated the issue--especially after his head coach gave him a slap on the wrist after his being arrested the summer before that season. Too many adults in Manziel's life have made it clear to him that he could do no wrong--as long as he is winning football games. Winston is a somewhat different case in that he is a monster multi-sport star recruited by all. The sense of entitlement he seems to have comes I would guess from being a highly sought after young athlete. Coaches and other hanger ons tell these young men anything to get them to sign on the dotted line and it is rare that a recruiter's pitch--a successful pitch that is--would talk about the responsibilities that come with the scholarship being extended. The focus for both of these young men was their future earnings at sport. Becoming responsible members of society seems to be a secondary concern. And continual allowances for transgressions is not helping matters. If we go back to Cam Newton that makes three out of the last four Heisman winners having legal issues as college students. This is fast becoming a trend.