QB Manziel is all football at combine

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS

Johnny Manziel shed the Hollywood image Friday — maybe for good.

The brash-talking, Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback from Texas A&M entered and exited the Lucas Oil Stadium media room through a back door. He ignored the television screens around him, monitors that provided live coverage of his media availability and that had been showing his college football highlights prior to his arrival.

And it seemed Johnny Football had suddenly transformed himself into Johnny Business.

“This is a job now. There are guys’ families, coaches’ families and jobs and all kinds of things on the line,” he said in a stern, deliberate voice at the NFL’s scouting combine. “For me, it won’t be a hard thing to kick. I’m extremely focused on whatever organization I’ll be at and really pouring my heart out trying to be football 24-7 with that team.”

What he has to prove now is that he means every word.

Since bursting onto the national stage in his Heisman-winning freshmen season, Manziel has been living large.

He’s been courtside at NBA games, played golf at Pebble Beach, partied in Cabo and become a feature attraction for memorabilia hounds. He’s participated in dunk contests, publicly complained about life in College Station, Texas, developed a friendship with Tom Brady and never been shy about — anything.

But in Indianapolis, none of that stuff means a thing.

Here, scouts and NFL front-office executives are treating Manziel as just another draft hopeful in the standard blue-and-green warm-up suit. They’ll see how he runs, how he tests and perhaps most important, how he answers questions.

Most teams want to know whether this 21-year-old, fun-loving football star is mature enough to handle millions of dollars and live up to the tag of franchise quarterback. Friday’s media availability may have been a good start.

Rather than showcasing his bravado, Manziel, at times, sounded almost apologetic for some of the things he’s said and done recently.

“The main thing I wanted to portray that was more in the subplots of the article,” he said, when asked about a story in which he seemed to warn Houston about bypassing him with the No. 1 overall pick, “was that whatever team I do end up with, whenever I do get to that team, whenever I am in that organization, each one of those guys is now my teammate, my brother and if I’m on the field with those guys, I’m going to try to be the best football player I can be.”

Other times, he sounded almost defiant.

“I knew who I was meeting with, but I’m not sure of his official title. Something along the lines of just a counselor,” he said when pressed about reports he was being treated for alcoholism and anger management while at Texas A&M.

When it became clear the 2012 Heisman winner measured in at 5-foot-11 3/4 inches, 207 pounds, shorter and lighter than his listed college measurements of 6-1 and 210, and shorter and lighter than many NFL teams seek in a starting quarterback, he wouldn’t confirm the measurements. Instead, he explained that he more heart and passion for this sport than anyone in the draft.