Johnny Manziel flashes cash at an Oklahoma casino. (Photo: @jmanziel2) This weekend, Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel posted an Instagram photo of himself holding a fanned handful of cash, tagged with the caption "casino ballin." After the posting created the requisite moral rumblings, Manziel, who had led his Texas A&M Aggies to a decisive Cotton Bowl victory the night before, deleted the photo. He posted a follow-up tweet: "Nothing illegal about being 18+ in a casino and winning money...KEEP HATING!" As Johnny Football notes, there's nothing inherently wrong with the picture. He's of legal age to gamble in the state of Oklahoma. Sports is the only type of gambling banned by the NCAA and it isn't allowed in Oklahoma casinos. Thus, Johnny Football was an of-age patron in a legal casino and has no such restrictions against him by his sport's governing body. Still, that doesn't mean posting stuff like this is a good idea. Just because it's legal to be 20 and rolling in cash at a casino doesn't mean it's a good move for the Heisman Trophy winner to celebrate it. There's far too much bad that can happen -- maybe a 21-year-old friend has a beer in the picture that looks like it belongs to Manziel, maybe someone is photobombing by flipping the bird, maybe someone at the casino sees Manziel's tweet and starts trouble. The negatives outweigh the non-existant positives. If I'm A&M coach Kevin Sumlin, I'm gently sitting down with Manziel and having a talk about the perils of Twitter. Maybe I give the example of young Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper, who stopped tweeting for a while after some negative publicity. Harper and Manziel actually exchanged tweets Saturday discussing the hazards of youth fame. Johnny Manziel racked up 516 total yards in Texas A&M's victory over Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl. (Photo: Tim Heitman, USA TODAY Sports) Don't take any of this as a criticism of Manziel, however. His tweet is totally understandable. Can you imagine how insufferable and immature you'd have been on Twitter as a famous 20-year-old? I can't believe Manziel had the good taste to only flash his thousands (I think those are hundreds) in a picture. I'd have gone all "Demi Moore in Indecent Proposal" for my Twitter photo-op. Tags
Source : http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2013/01/06/johnny-manziel-casino-cash/1811863/