Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has long been infatuated with Johnny Manziel, the football player. This was the case in the months and weeks leading up to the 2014 NFL Draft, and that didn't change during Manziel's two, mostly forgettable seasons in Cleveland. But the former Heisman Trophy winner and first-round pick couldn't stay out of trouble off the field and now he's a free agent. In fact, there's the very real chance he doesn't find his way onto an NFL roster in 2016.
On Tuesday, Jones said that even he wasn't interested in signing Manziel, though he'd welcome the chance to help the 23-year-old get his life back on track.
"The overwhelming response and the overwhelming mentality is for him, if we're involved in any way, to help and encourage him to get it together, to get his issue improved because those issues, in my mind, not talent, are why he is free today," Jones said from the NFL owners meetings in Boca Raton, Fla., according to ESPN.com. "It's those issues, and those issues are the overriding consideration here, and how and what basis that those can be dealt with and addressed."
Jones says he hasn't spoken to either Manziel or his new agent, Drew Rosenhaus, though ESPN.com reports that Manziel's name came up late last season as a possible quarterback candidate in Dallas (we've heard variations of this this from others too, including Troy Aikman). That's no longer an option for 2016, but Jones, who has a history of helping players, would do the same for Manziel.
"I would in any way offer to help him work to be where we all are rooting for him to be, which is having a successful life and football career," Jones said. "I would do that. You say, 'Well, is that because of football?' Well, I might not have been aware of this, had it not been for football. I'm aware of it.
"With that, with me, comes a motivation, if it's appropriate within the rules or within the guidelines of the NFL, if we can be of help in the promise of being a part of the NFL through the Cowboys, I certainly look to that. But … I don't even dare, right now, go into picturing him in a training camp or an OTA or him in a ballgame. You don't go there."
Put another way: Manziel has sabotaged his career to such an extent that not even Jerry Jones would risk signing him right now. It's gotten so bad that, last month, Manziel's father said his son won't live to see his 24th birthday unless he gets help.
