clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Another ESPN Autograph Gate Report

Another day, another report to add to the pages of Autograph Gate

By DerekAggie06
USA TODAY Sports

This is starting to feel like a scene from Idiocracy. Brawndo, it's what plants crave, it's got electrolytes. ESPN's Joe Schad has released another article on Autograph Gate surrounding reports of Johnny Manziel accepting payments for autographs. This time, another one of these fine upstanding citizens known as autograph brokers claims he paid Johnny Manziel $7,500 for 300 autographs on some helmets. For our math-challenged crowd, that's precisely NOWHERE-NEAR-ENOUGH per signature. Unlike the eariler report this week, this broker claims to have video of the transaction. Well, I guess it's time to mail in the season and go ahead and burn your #2 jerseys in the street (which is available for sale here on the NCAA Store).

More: March 2013: some autographs are fake Johnny's version of events Autographs are stupid.
The video does not show Manziel accepting any money.

Wait. ESPN had the opportunity to purchase this video and they didn't? This video would have likely crashed their servers if they placed it on their website in Schad's latest article. It would have been the straw that broke the camels back. Instead, the article only has certain quotes from a cell phone video that Schad was shown. Quotes that can be used in whatever context necessary to keep this story rolling along. I mean, ESPN would never put quotes out of context in order to drive a story, right?

Oh yeah, that.

So Manziel apparently said he wanted the money for rims for his car. His Mercedes. His Mercedes that can be seen in a video with the original rims on it after this allegedly took place. I'm going to go out on a limb and say the Manziels would dip into their coffers and get Johnathan some rims if he wanted them. Then again, maybe this is a glimpse into the transition to the dark side of the fame that Manziel has had trouble dealing with.

ESPN reports that the broker will not cooperate with the investigation

Here we are again. Another report of Manziel dealing with shady autograph brokers. Another story talking about all of this evidence. Another story providing absolutely zero evidence. So we know Manziel is on an illegally recorded video saying some things with no real context to what he was saying. What we do know, for a fact, is that this is yet another story that does not show Johnny Manziel breaking any NCAA rules. It's also important to remember that the Ags don't exactly have the best experience when dealing with the NCAA. With the broker now deciding he doesn't want to sell the video, and without any evidence of money changing hands, we are all right back where we started.

As these types of reports continue to surface, we will all definitely be keeping an eye on the first team reps during Fall camp for the Aggies. Coach Sumlin showed a little hesitancy when asked about playing Manziel if the investigation is still ongoing. Will the continued reports of shady autograph sessions force Sumlin and the Athletic Department to be proactive? Time will tell, and we only have 25 days to find out.

More from Good Bull Hunting:

More From Good Bull Hunting

cuppycup, thacktor, and Chuck in a spooky podcast