Poll: Plurality Say Johnny Manziel Doesn’t Deserve Another Crack at NFL

A new poll shows that a plurality of Americans believe that Johnny Manziel does not deserve another shot at the NFL.

The Yahoo Sports/YouGov poll of 1,183 adults found that 42 percent of Americans think the former Heisman Trophy-winner does not deserve another chance in the NFL and 40 percent of respondents believe that he does. Eighteen percent did not offer an opinion. The younger the survey-taker, the more likely it was for them to support the beleaguered quarterback receiving another look in the league.

The release of the poll follows a Thursday court date in which a judge instructed Manziel to stay away from his ex-fiancee, who alleges that he assaulted her this winter. In addition to a police helicopter searching for Manziel in Texas, the player allegedly trashed a mansion he had rented with friends, lost the services of two disgusted sports agents, showed up at the Coachella music festival, and received his walking papers from the Cleveland Browns all in 2016.

The change of fortune comes less than two years from the night Manziel rubbed his thumb and forefinger together in a “money” gesture after the Browns drafted him in the first round of the 2014 NFL draft. The undersized quarterback failed to make much of an impression on the field and made the wrong kind of impression off of it, no-showing mandatory team sessions and allegedly showing up hungover to other team meetings. As Manziel did not hide his life as a late-night carouser in college, the Browns can’t say they were not warned.

“Also as part of the survey, YouGov developed a word cloud based on the words people most commonly used to refer to Manziel,” Yahoo Sports points out. “That’s a little more definitive: the word “good” is the largest descriptor, but almost every other word after that, including “loser,” “idiot,” “troubled,” and “stupid,” has a negative connotation.”