I Don’t Want My Son to be a Heisman Winner

It appears Johnny Manziel has been found out. I believe we’re up to six autograph signings for three different memorabilia brokers in which Manziel was compensated. I’ve heard many different views on the whole situation, all of which seem to miss the boat in this discussion.

Most arguments, both for and against allowing a college athlete to reap the benefits of his own name, are “future dwelling.” By that, I mean people are more worried about what should change in the future and how policy and rules should adjust to be more fair moving forward and if I had a dime for every “What If” I’ve heard, I could afford those courtside Mavericks tickets that Johnny Football seemed to enjoy a few months ago. 

“But his family already has money” I can hear someone saying. “Those tickets were a gift from his parents!” That’s great and legal too. But why then, would little “Johnny Autographed Football” need to sell his name? Oh. He wanted rims. For his Honda Civic? No? Oh, that’s right. The Mercedes he was driving didn’t come equipped with big enough wheels. “But his parents bought him that Mercedes!” someone will cry. But an extra thousand or two would’ve stretched their budget too thin to accommodate little Johnny’s desires and they couldn’t stand to listen to that tantrum in the middle of the aisle at the grocery store any longer. Blah blah blah, something about cake and eating it too.

Unfortunately, the arguments largely seem to be not about the rules that were broken (And don’t try to tell me that the Heisman trophy winner wasn’t aware that selling his autograph for money while still in college was illegal)  but more about “We think these rules are stupid and therefore, we shouldn’t force anyone to abide by them anymore. Now, how do we go about changing these rules?”

I don’t believe I’ve heard one person discuss how the great Johnny Football should be held accountable for his actions. He seems to be in such a hurry to grow up and start making big boy money that he hasn’t quite learned about accountability and responsibility. Which, ironically, are a large part of that growing up process.

From the ESPN, Sports Illustrated and various other accounts I’ve read, his parents didn’t seem all that interested in those ever-so-coveted teachable moments. Dad still lets Johnny throw clubs around at the golf course when he gets angry and was quoted saying that he doesn’t enjoy playing golf with his own son because he doesn’t want to see that temper again.  I read that and screamed in my own head “THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, DAD!!!!”

Our job as fathers is to teach and love and mold and grow not enable. I guess it starts with parents when it comes to their children’s own accountability. A monkey see, monkey do type of thing. But it’s difficult to admit when you’re wrong. And though I haven’t had to do it in front of my own son yet (not because I haven’t been wrong in the past year, just ask my wife), I intend to do it once he understands.

My son may hate the game of golf when he gets older (but he won’t, right son?!?!?!?) but I can’t imagine getting to the point where I say I don’t want to be around him because of how he acts. I would see that as a failure on my part. It’s a bit daunting to think about the next few years and the repercussions of my parenting lasting the entirety of my son’s life. It reminds of me of Lucy and the conveyor belt of chocolate she has to wrap. There are opportunities everywhere to make good impressions with our children but we can’t slow down the rate at which those opportunities present themselves. Fortunately for us, there’s no one yelling “Speed it up a little!” Unfortunately, we do that plenty fine on our own.