"Manziel's wild weekend," read the slug in the rundown as the second half hour of the 6 p.m. edition of SportsCenter began Monday night.
"Has Johnny Manziel become the Amanda Bynes of college football?" Linda Cohn started. "Or do all 20-year-olds act like this?"
The story that drew this intro: Manziel getting kicked out of a fraternity party at the University of Texas Friday night followed by his "head-shaking" wardrobe choice - a Tim Tebow Jets jersey - that "created a buzz."
"The Texas A&M quarterback put himself in the spotlight yet again in yet another chapter of the summer of Johnny Football," Cohn read. "Then he took to Twitter."
OH THE HUMANITY.
Manziel tweeted: "Last time I checked double digit win columns and championships are what matters" and "'Just win, Baby'"
"And some wonder why he's still on Twitter," Cohn followed.
Cocky, sure. Racial slurs or derogatory remarks, no.
As if this wasn't enough coverage, it was then time for actor Denzel Washington to weigh in on the quarterback's actions - because Washington certainly offers insightful perspective on 20-year-old college athletes and frat parties - followed by the PTI guys debating the question,"Does Johnny Football need to grow up?"
Kevin Blackistone says, "Look at what Johnny Manziel has gotten involved with since winning the Heisman trophy." His examples - shoving a grad assistant, putting out negative tweets about his school and leaving the Manning camp early.
"When is the university going to reel him in?" Blackistone continues. "With other athletes, we judge these kinds of things as a character flaw. We're not doing that with Johnny Manziel. He's getting a break."
This after five minutes were spent analyzing nothing but his weekend activities and mentioning his name in the same sentence as Amanda Bynes.
That's "getting a break?"
Maybe Manziel is immature, or should shut his mouth or be more careful about which parties he chooses to attend.
Or maybe he shouldn't be scrutinized as if he is an elected official, as if his partying or tweeting or wardrobe choice has some sort of greater significance because he won the Heisman last year.
Mentioning the frat party incident or Tebow jersey isn't the problem. Blowing them up into a full segment and discussion piece becomes overkill.
The end of July is far from the most action-packed time of the sports year with baseball the only major sport in full swing, NFL training camp just kicking off and college football a month away.
So the Aggie quarterback has become this cycle's "hot topic." A few weeks ago, it was Yasiel Puig. Before that, Tim Tebow, Jeremy Lin, and so on. Select athletes are hyped, dissected and debated to smithereens until their "story" becomes stale. Then it's on to the next.
Sure, Manziel is in the spotlight as a Heisman winner and big-name college athlete, but these scrutinized actions are more TMZ fodder than Worldwide Leader food for thought.
For all that Derek Jeter is and has been to the New York Yankees and game of baseball, no one will mistake him for a vaunted power hitter. A guy with a pension for capturing a moment with the long ball - that's a different story.
"He's a movie," manager Joe Girardi said about his star shortstop.
The Yankee captain was Oscar-worthy Sunday against the Rays, knocking a solo shot just over the wall in right-centerfield on the first pitch of his first at-bat back from the DL.
The Rays know the scene all too well. Just two years ago, Jeter notched his 3,000th hit in dramatic fashion with his first homer at Yankee Stadium in nearly an entire year.
"I didn't want to hit a slow roller to third base and have it be replayed forever," Jeter said that day.
That would not be the way of Jeter, a man who earned the nickname Mr. November for his historic home run in the 2001 World Series.
His return dinger Sunday also brought back memories of one of the most memorable - and controversial - of his career in the 1996 ALDS against the Orioles. Just as 12-year-old Jeffrey Maier ensured Jeter's drive reached the seats at the old stadium, a fan in the new stadium for the weekend set's final game made sure there would be no doubt of a home run, reaching his glove perilously close to past the ledge of the right field wall and snatching the ball.
With one pitch and swing of the bat, Jeter injected some early life into an up-and-down team much in need of it, at risk of a sweep against the white-hot Rays. Jeter's solo shot set off a three-run inning to give the Bronx Bombers an early lead, a day after a 1-0 loss in which they mustered only two hits.
And here's some more statistical significance from ESPN Stats and Info: "Derek Jeter is 1st Yankees right-handed batter w/ a HR since Jayson Nix on June 25 vs Rangers. It's the 1st Yankees HR since All-Star break."
Jeter won't be anywhere close to Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds on the all-time home run list whenever he decides to step away from the game. Where Jeter thrives in the home run count, however, is not in bulk but bravado.
Like Byung-Hyun Kim, Tony Tarasco and teammate David Price, Rays pitcher Matt Moore now too knows the feeling of being unwittingly cast as a supporting actor in a Jeter picture.
Late July sure felt a lot like last October much of Tuesday night.
Fifteen straight Yankees batters were retired in order, as the Bronx Bombers slogged along in the Texas heat, trailing 4-3 and bringing back memories of the 2012 postseason which they finished with a .181 team batting average.
But then, with one out in the ninth inning, Vernon Wells broke through with a walk, setting up a rally off Rangers closer Joe Nathan. After a wild pitch moved Wells to second, Eduardo Nunez tripled to drive him in and tie the game. Brent Lillibridge then singled in Nunez to give the Yankees a lead after all hope seemed stymied.
Those names involved are not a misprint.
Wells, Nunez and Lillibridge - not Jeter, Rodriguez, Granderson or Teixeira - spurred the most important inning of the Yankees' season thus far in the team's 100th game.
These are not your typical marquee-name Yankees. Those guys all currently reside on the DL.
Joe Girardi's batting order Tuesday night went as follows: Gardner, Suzuki, Cano, Overbay, Wells, Nunez, Lillibridge, Mesa, Romine.
Losers of three of four following the All-Star break, Sunday night's extra-inning loss to arch-rival Boston especially excruciating, the Yankees needed some momentum.
They were shutout in the first game of this series with Texas and bowing down to Nathan in the ninth would have sunk morale even lower.
But an unsung trio fueled an unexpected comeback in an unusual Yankees season. That's a boost measured by bravado, not big bucks.
A little more than a year ago, Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun called himself a victim of a failed process after an arbitrator overturned a suspension based on a positive test for banned substances.
Now, Braun is again a “victim,” this time of his own delusion.
The former MVP’s February 2012 impromptu news conference has to go down as 25 of the phoniest minutes in history.
“I have always stood up for what is right.”
Really?
“I will continue to take the high road because that’s who I am and that’s the way that I’ve lived my life.”
The “lie road" might be more accurate.
“I would bet my life this substance never entered my body.”
Don’t take Ryan with you to the casino.
"If I had done this intentionally or unintentionally, I’d be the first one to step up and say, ‘I did it.’”
Major League Baseball beat him to it.
What is more astonishing about Braun’s situation is not just that he cheated - many other players before him have done the same - but how assertive he was in complete falsehoods.
He looked and sounded like he really did believe he did no wrong, as if he had convinced himself of his own fabrication.
Others bought in too. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was so effectively hoodwinked he tweeted he was willing to put up his 2013 salary on Braun's word that he didn't use PEDs.
Braun stood his ground that day as a man of integrity who was wronged by a bunch of bad guys trying to compromise his character.
But really, with those words said in 2012, Braun paved the way to his own demise.
Americans may never forget but they will forgive if you’re upfront and honest. It may seem as if there is a double standard when it comes to PEDs, guys like Andy Pettitte forgotten, while the public rides roughshod over others.
However, those that become vilified are those who not only cheat but lie.
Rafael Palmeiro boldly asserted in March 2005, in front of Congress no less, that he never used steroids. Five months later, he was handed a 10-day suspension for a positive test.
"The man just reached 3,000 hits," Ed Johnson, of Baltimore told a Baltimore Sun reporter following the bombshell. "It's shameful. Him of all people. It's very shocking. Now I'm teed off."
Alex Rodriguez, perhaps baseball’s most polarizing player, is also like Palmeiro and Braun a victim by no one else’s doing but his own.
When asked in a 2007 “60 Minutes” interview if he had ever used steroids, HGH or any other performance-enhancing substance, Rodriguez bluntly told Katie Couric no. When she further asked him if he was ever even tempted, he again said no.
By 2009, Rodriguez was admitting he did in fact use steroids, following allegations of a positive test while with the Texas Rangers in 2003.
Rodriguez betrayed any reasonable faith you could have had in his word.
Following his suspension Monday, Braun said, "I am not perfect. I realize now that I have made some mistakes. I am willing to accept the consequences of those actions."
Just now? What took so long?
Braun is right - no one is perfect. Had he come clean about his mistakes from the get-go his reputation as a baseball player may just have been tarnished.
But those consequences Braun will now have to accept are far greater - ones of dignity, character and a trust that will be difficult to ever regain.
Great Britain had to wait 77 years. It wasn't quite so long for Andy Murray, who has been alive just 26 of those, though it may have felt like it.
Eleven years ago, Tim Henman went down in the Wimbledon semifinals for the fourth and final time in his career. Three years later, Murray earned a Wild Card and played his first points there, falling in the third round.
While it may not have been evident at the time, it was a changing of the guard for British tennis.
The years of anguish on "Henman Hill" would give way to a new great hope for the country but ultimate jubilation was certainly not sudden on what some now call "Murray Mound."
Murray had to fight the notion of being the other guy in a sport dominated by two all-time greats, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, then a third in Novak Djokovic, all in the heart of their prime.
Just getting to a final, let alone winning one, seemed a monumental task. He first reached one in 2008, a loss to Federer at the U.S. Open, and then twice at the Australian Open championship, falling to Federer again in 2010 and Djokovic in 2011.
But one year ago, Murray was on the precipice of ending the long British men's Wimbledon drought, finally reaching the final at the All England Club.
He won the first set against Centre Court king Federer but then dropped the next three and lost with a country's hopes riding on his back. Murray got emotional after that match, crying in front of the British faithful.
A year ago, I wrote Murray's legacy was being defined by the three greats ahead of him.
Since that loss to Federer at Wimbledon 2012, the boy from Dunblane has captured an Olympic gold medal in London, won his first grand slam at the U.S. Open, and ended a seven-decade long British dearth at its home grounds.
Suffice to say, Andy Murray is now writing his own place in history. He has slain the Goliaths and conquered the albatross hanging over his country each year. The next logical step is reaching another mountaintop - becoming the number one player in the world.
