Dumped by agent, assault case to grand jury: Manziel’s tough week
Johnny Manziel, who is about as far from an NFL career in 2016 as a 23-year-old former first-round pick could possibly be, still made two headlines on Tuesday.
As is the case with everything Manziel-related these days, neither was good.
First, the Dallas County district attorney said Manziel’s domestic violence assault case will be presented to a grand jury on Thursday, with a decision likely to be announced Monday according to the Associated Press. Manziel has been accused of striking his former girlfriend during an argument this past January.
Then ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that agent Drew Rosenhaus made it official and will be dropping Manziel as a client. Rosenhaus gave Manziel a public five-day ultimatum to get treatment or he would sever his business relationship with the quarterback. While you can wonder about the motives of an agent publicly demanding a new client gets treatment or he’ll severing ties with him, especially when it’s clear the player won’t be signing a contract that generates a commission anytime soon, it’s rare for an agent to dump a player. And now Manziel has been dropped by two agents in about two months; his first agent Erik Burkhardt cut ties with Manziel earlier this year.
This all comes on the heels of yet more reports of Manziel’s offseason partying, at the Coachella music festival in California this past weekend. TMZ reported suspended Cleveland Browns receiver Josh Gordon was with Manziel, which is probably not the best decision for Gordon, who is trying to get NFL reinstatement.
Manziel is out of a job, has a serious legal case open in Dallas and now doesn’t even have an agent to keep whatever tiny NFL interest there is for him alive with teams. If you’re still asking yourself if an NFL team will take a shot on Manziel, it’s best to stop. It’s not happening for a long time, and it would necessitate some major changes by Manziel along the way.
Until then, the bad news keeps trickling in.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
