Hamilton Tiger-Cat’s backup quarterback Johnny Manziel had an impressive debut for the CFL on Friday, in a losing effort to the Toronto Argonauts.
Johnny Manziel was 9-of-12 passing for 80 yards, and rushed twice for 10 yards, looking poised and polished in the pocket as he made his long-awaited, but highly anticipated debut.
“I felt like I was able to get in there and handle the situation well, get some completions and get the guys some balls,” Manziel said, according to TSN. “I really wasn’t nervous going into it, I was just kind of going out and letting the ball rip.
“Right now we’re still in pre-season so we’ll get a little bit more tailor-made for the team and defense and what they do and scheme against them. I think that’ll help us moving forward.”
Manziel took the opportunity, speaking with the media, to air his complaining about a 22-yard intentional ground penalty.
“That’s the worst call of the century,” Manziel said. “My whole life I’ve been taught to throw it right at the stick that’s marking the down.
“I thought I got it there, he (official) told me I was about a yard short. That’s the first time I’ve heard of that, that’s new to me.”
CFL rules will take some getting used to, as Manziel was jogging to the locker-room at halftime despite one final play needing to be run.
“I’m still learning some things up here,” Manziel said. “There’s going to be some of those growing pains.”
“Obviously you can’t turn the ball over like that and ever have a chance to win a game,” Hamilton coach June Jones said. “But he (Manziel) did some good things.
“He’s got a good game presence about him. He knew what was going on . . . he wasn’t rattled, he wasn’t flustered. Obviously he scrambled around and made a couple of plays. I think he’s going to get better and better every time he plays.”
Argos players sure tried to get under Manziel’s skin, but Manziel isn’t going to back down. Manziel has been a polarizing athlete, and given the boom of web3, he may be the latest to get in on the gaming crypto scene, or dive a bit further with content creator crypto coins, which is very forward thinking. But, for now, he is focusing solely on success in the CFL.
“Listen, I’m not here to be pushed over,” Manziel said. “You can come at me because my name is in the papers, because my name is on TV . . . but I’m not backing down from anybody.
“We’re playing Toronto, obviously there’s a long-standing rivalry here. They’re Grey Cup champs, they jumped on us early. They had every right to talk . . . but this isn’t the last time I’ll be sitting here after a game against them so we’ll welcome them with open arms once the season comes.”