Written by Des Bieler at Washington Post.com
Johnny Manziel has a high-powered new agent, one apparently determined to drum up interest in his controversial client. The quarterback, recently let go by the Browns after two seasons in the NFL, has “teams interested in him,” Drew Rosenhaus said Monday.
Speaking at the NFL owners’ meetings in Boca Raton, Fla., Rosenhaus said that he was “not talking much about [Manziel] publicly,” per the told theDallas Star-Telegram. The quarterback has been providing plenty of his own publicity, almost none of it favorable, with an indictment for domestic violence following numerous reports of partying that soured his relationship with Cleveland management.
“Much of his life and career is public so from the business side we are trying to keep that behind the scenes,” Rosenhaus said. “Yes, there are teams interested in him.”
The agent didn’t specify whether those were NFL teams, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, considering the location of his comments. Of course, “interest” is a fairly vague term, and it certainly does not mean that any NFL team is prepared to sign Manziel, particularly before his legal difficulties are sorted out.
The reason Manziel has begun working with Rosenhaus is that his previous agent, Erik Burkhardt, dropped the quarterback in February. “It has become painfully obvious that his future rests solely in his own hands,” Burkhardt said in a statement at the time. “His family and I have gone to great lengths to outline the steps we feel he must take to get his life in order.”
It is not clear what steps Manziel is taking in that regard these days, but he has definitely not checked himself into a rehab facility, as he did for 10 weeks in the spring of 2015. Over the past several weeks, gossip website TMZ Sports has posted numerous accounts of Manziel’s continued nightlife forays, and even video it posted Monday purporting to show the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner actually throwing a football appeared to show him relaxing with his pals rather than seriously working out.
