You Might Hate It, But Manziel Loves The Villain Role

Nothing like watching the hero become the villain. Especially when it's a 20 year-old Heisman trophy winner entering just his sophomore year at Texas A&M.

Johnny Manziel went from Beaver Cleaver to James Dean before our eyes. A privileged kid who came from money, with exceptional talent to play at the highest level of college football, has been in the negative view of the public eye since he took home the game's highest honor back in December.

You know the story. The fancy car, the courtside seats at basketball games, hanging out at fraternity parties at Texas while donning a Tebow Jets jersey. Oh yes, Johnny Manziel is like a good number of young adults his age. Problem is, he's a public figure.

I was no angel at age 20. But I, like most of you, was an average nobody.

Manziel served his 30 minute timeout and then came out for the second half against Rice and made his presence felt. The "show me the money" hand gesture and taunting Rice defenders as he ran and passed all over the Owls in the second half.

An unsportsmanlike penalty and total disregard for his coach was yet another moment in Johnny Manziel, college football's rebel without a cause's career.

For those who found his behavior repulsive are also the same people who were hoping that he would not be suspended for the 2013 season, because they wanted to see him play (especially against Alabama). You know the old saying "You can't have your cake and eat it too?" Manziel will play against Alabama, but you can't expect him to behave.

Anyone on Twitter can tell you that Manziel was already trolling and responding to criticism over the offseason. So why wouldn't he do the same on the field?

He is embracing the role of the antagonist. Saturday afternoon was Manziel giving the finger to the NCAA and all the people who doubt him.

Eventually, he will cross the wrong person and pay for it. He got yanked by Sumlin for his actions against Rice. If that doesn't send a message, nothing will.

To paraphrase Harvey Dent "you can live long enough to watch yourself become the villain." For us, Manziel is becoming a villain that is too talented to look away from.