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Rick Zamperin: Will Johnny Manziel go boom or bust in Game 1?

Montreal Alouettes quarterback Johnny Manziel will make his Canadian Football League debut Friday night against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/Graham Hughes

We have been waiting for this moment for a while, but no one thought it would be like this.

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The Johnny Manziel era is about to begin.

Manziel is set to make his Canadian Football League (CFL) debut Friday night when the Hamilton Tiger-Cats visit the Montreal Alouettes.

But instead of wearing black and gold, Manziel will don the Als’ uniform and will try to beat the team that brought him to the CFL and then traded him without ever playing for Hamilton — at least not in the regular season.

There are some fans who are expecting “Johnny Football” to explode onto the scene and throw for 400 yards and four touchdowns while guiding Montreal to a victory over the Ticats.

Others are thinking the opposite, predicting the former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback will flop in his first start because he has had only two weeks of practice with the Alouettes and there is no way Manziel will be able to use his limited knowledge of the playbook to be effective.

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While I don’t think Manziel is going to be outstanding from his first snap to his last play against Hamilton, I also don’t anticipate that he’s going to embarrass himself.

Manziel will make some plays but he will most certainly struggle and make his fair share of mistakes.

Let’s not forget that football is the ultimate team sport and every player on the field has to do their part for the team to have success.

Montreal is a rebuilding team and there aren’t many good pieces in place for Manziel to take advantage of.

That’s unfortunate, for him at least.

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