Manziel: I'm the Bieber of college football

Updated?Jul 18, 2013 2:32 AM ET

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HOOVER, Ala.

Johnny Manziel is so tweeted out, so watched, so TMZ?d that he said he feels like Justin Bieber. He said at Wednesday?s SEC media session he has spoken with a couple counselors to help deal with all the stress. He has talked, too, with Cam Newton about dealing with sudden attention. He has hung out with LeBron James to discuss it. He hasn?t talked much with Tim Tebow yet but does have a message to return.

Yes, his constant stream of little screw-ups has been about the modern social media world Manziel lives in, blown out of proportion to where a college kid can?t even have a beer without ...

Oh please. Johnny Football isn?t being burned by social media. He?s milking social media, using it to make every last one of his dreams come true. It?s getting him everything he wants, the usual Heisman experience on steroids.

(No, I did not just suggest that Manziel is on steroids.)

Manziel said Wednesday, several times, that the highlight of this year has been talking with LeBron. Just sitting there like two friends. They traded cell numbers. Texts, too.

I mean, this time last year, Manziel was just some nobody kid hoping to get a chance to play quarterback at Texas A&M. Now, he?s friends with Drake. You can?t blame him for eating this up, but let?s not start making excuses or using the entry to his dreamland as the excuse for his mistakes.

Manziel isn?t just some dumb kid. He?s Twitter savvy. He is also now the world?s biggest name-dropper.

He was the center of attention at SEC Media Days on Wednesday, and, sounding like a defendant well-prepared by his attorney, set down several talking points about his wild year.

1) He did not miss a meeting at the Manning passing camp because of any partying the night before, or any hangover. He just overslept, and his cellphone was dead.

2) He?s just a 20-year-old kid living and learning.

3) Stories all over Twitter and everywhere else about him are wrong.

The first story about why he missed the meeting at the Manning Camp, then was sent home, was that he had been out partying. Then, it was that he was ill. Then, I think his dad said he was dehydrated.

So why did he miss the meeting? Why did he oversleep?

?I wasn?t football-ready,? Manziel said. ?I was tired. It was exhausting. It had nothing to do with activities the night before. Just a really busy schedule in June and July. Probably bit off more than I can chew.?

He also said leaving the camp was a mutual decision and that he wasn?t kicked out.

But Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron was Manziel?s roommate at the camp. When he got up in the morning and left for the meeting, why didn?t he wake up Manziel?

?I?m definitely not putting it on him,? Manziel said. ?Definitely my fault, 115 percent, 120 percent.?

What about the New York Daily News report that you weren?t even in the room?

?All you had to do was come knock on my door, open my dorm room,? he said. ?I?d have been right there asleep with my dead phone next to me.?

It occurs to me that McCarron, who will talk Thursday, has Manziel?s reputation in his hands.

I?m not being critical of Manziel?s offseason. He?s just having as much fun as he possibly can, as if he thinks this is all there is going to be for him. Last year?s Heisman winner is like the guy who hits the lottery and suddenly finds that he gets to hang out with rich people.

How do you expect the invisible kid sitting in the back corner to behave when he?s suddenly the most popular kid in school?

?I hope people still see that I?m a 20-year-old in college,? he said, roughly 50 times. ?I?m just trying to enjoy my life, and I hope that doesn?t upset too many people. I?m continuing to learn as the days and weeks go on. I?ve made mistakes and will learn from them and try not to make the same mistake twice.?

Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said his role with Manziel is like a parent?s. You teach your kids to do the right things, and then hope they do: ?Off the field, there?s no question he?s made mistakes. ... We?ve had discussions on that. He has done some things he?s not very proud of.?

After hearing Manziel, I?m not sure I got that. In fact, I think Johnny Name-Dropper is proud of almost everything he has done, everyone he has met, just as any 20-year-old would be. That doesn?t include the way the Manning camp ended.

But Manziel compares himself to Bieber, and that's a good connection: Bieber is using social media to build himself, too.

Reporters are a few steps behind on Manziel?s story. It?s hard for a lot of media types to hold more than a story angle or two at a time in their heads. The new thing is this wild new, confusing world of social media? Sure, for a lot in the media.
But not for Johnny Manziel, 20-year-old college kid. He grew up in this world. He is comfortable with it.

?I knew the spotlight was bright,? he said. ?I knew all my actions were being watched, but lately it?s just been magnified.?

That?s where I?m calling BS. But Manziel?s time with the media was up Wednesday. And when it was over, he left to go back to College Station.

Oops, no he didn?t. He left for the ESPYs.

Source: http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/johnny-manziel-sec-media-days-manning-passing-camp-excuse-justin-bieber-071713

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Senate nomination pact averts meltdown _ for now

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A bipartisan Senate pact has smoothed the confirmation path for a batch of President Barack Obama's nominations and removed, for now, a Democratic threat to impose procedural changes weakening minority Republicans' clout. Yet there are no guarantees that the conflict won't flare anew the next time a White House appointment stirs controversy.

A day after both parties celebrated an agreement averting a bitter fight over Senate rules, the chamber planned to vote Wednesday on one of Obama's picks, Fred Hochberg to be president of the Export-Import Bank.

Also possible this week are roll calls on Labor Secretary-designate Tom Perez and Gina McCarthy, Obama's choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.

On Tuesday, Republicans agreed to allow quick votes on seven Obama selections by simple majority margins, rather than forcing Democrats to garner 60 votes to succeed. Hours later, the Senate by 66-34 approved the first of those appointments, confirming Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ? after Republicans had blocked him for nearly two years as they demanded changes in the agency's structure and financing.

In a written statement, Obama thanked Senate leaders for working out their dispute but criticized his opponents for using "purely political reasons" to stall the nominations.

"In the weeks ahead, I hope the Congress will build on this spirit of cooperation to advance other urgent middle-class priorities" like revamping immigration laws and keeping student loan interest rates from rising, Obama said.

In exchange for the GOP concessions on the nominations, Democrats agreed to drop their effort to change the chamber's rules. Obama also submitted two new nominees for a pair of labor posts after Republicans adamantly opposed his initial picks.

"Does that mean it will last forever? I don't know about that," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said of the accord. But he added, "We have a new start for this body, and I feel very comfortable with it."

Democrats had been threatening to muscle through a rules change preventing opponents from forcing top agency nominees to win 60 votes from the 100-member Senate.

That would have diminished the chamber's filibuster rule that minority parties, Republicans as well as Democrats, have long cherished as a tool that prevents them from becoming virtually irrelevant. Changing the Senate's rules by majority vote ? instead of the two-thirds margin usually required when the plan is controversial ? is unusual and considered likely to invite such harsh retaliation that it is called the nuclear option.

"I think it's a step in the right direction that the majority has chosen not to exercise the nuclear option," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "We feel good about that. I think they feel good about it. So I think that crisis has been averted."

The standoff was resolved following an exceptional closed-door meeting in the Capitol's old Senate chamber Monday night, attended by nearly every senator. For the previous several days, senators had met and made phone calls in an effort to head off a clash, with several lawmakers crediting Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for helping bring the sides together.

As part of the resulting agreement, Obama withdrew his nominations of two nominees to the National Labor Relations Board, Richard Griffin and Sharon Clark. Obama installed Griffin and Clark onto the board in 2011, bypassing the Senate but triggering a legal challenge in which an appeals court has said the two appointments were invalid. Republicans were insistent that those selections be replaced.

In their places, Obama nominated Nancy Schiffer, a former top lawyer for the AFL-CIO, and Kent Hirozawa, counsel to NLRB Chairman Mark Pearce. Reid said he was planning for the Senate to confirm both next week.

The seventh Obama appointment involved in the bipartisan deal is Pearce, whose pick is relatively uncontroversial. The NLRB appointments, if confirmed as expected, would prevent the virtual shutdown of the agency because of a lack of confirmed board members to rule on collective bargaining disputes between unions and companies.

___

Associated Press writer David Espo contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-nomination-pact-averts-meltdown-now-070854848.html

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