I can’t say that I am at all surprised after learning that Johnny Manziel has crashed out of the Canadian Football League.
On Wednesday, the Montreal Alouettes announced they had released the quarterback based on the direction of the CFL after Manziel contravened the agreement that made him eligible to play in the league.
In short, Manziel, 26, broke the rules that he had agreed to with commissioner Randy Ambrosie and is done as a CFL player less than a year after he signed as a free agent with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, just before last year’s training camp.
He never took a snap in the regular season with the Ticats, who traded him to the Alouettes in July — along with offensive linemen Tony Washington and Landon Rice — for defensive end Jamaal Westerman, receiver Chris Williams and two first-round draft picks (2020 and 2021).
At the time, it looked like the Tiger-Cats had won the deal — looking back now, it was a steal of a deal for Hamilton.
“Johnny Football” started eight games for the Als in 2018 and threw for 1,290 yards, five touchdowns and seven interceptions — four of which came in his first career start, which just so happened to be against the Tiger-Cats.
One of the things Montreal general manager Kavis Reed said after Manziel’s release was quite telling.
“We worked with the league and presented alternatives to Johnny, who was unwilling to proceed,” said Reed, which clearly signals that Manziel had had enough of three-down football.
WATCH: Alouettes GM on releasing QB Johnny Manziel
Manziel tweeted that he’s now looking forward to “exploring new options within the United States.”
I very much doubt those options will include the National Football League, as it appears NFL GMs have turned the page on Manziel. That leaves the former Heisman Trophy-winning QB to look at the fledgeling Alliance of America Football (AAF) or the XFL, which has targeted a 2020 launch.
Former Ticats head coach June Jones (now Hamilton’s offensive co-ordinator) once projected Manziel would be “the best player to ever play up here.”
CFL fans will never get a chance to see that prediction come to fruition, and no one should be surprised.
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