Don’t stick a fork in Johnny Manziel’s football career just yet.
The former Heisman Trophy winner, and polarizing partier extraordinaire, has received a two-year contract offer from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League.
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The team released a statement on Sunday explaining the motives behind taking a run at the Cleveland Browns’ 2014 first-round-pick:
“As per the negotiation list process, Johnny Manziel and his agent recently notified the Tiger-Cats that they had activated the 10-day window during which the Tiger-Cats must offer him a contract or lose his negotiation list rights. That window closed today and we can confirm that we made an offer to Manziel, and that his rights will remain on our negotiation list while discussions with he and his agent continue. We will have no further comment.”
According to TSN’s Dave Naylor, the offer from Hamilton is a “competitive” one, and not just a technicality intended to keep Manziel’s negotiating rights. Naylor also noted that with the formal offer, the Ticats “extend their rights to him for one year” and that the two sides can continue to negotiate, with no real urgency to get a deal done right away.
The CFL and commissioner Randy Ambrosie confirmed in late December that the league would approve a potential contract and allow Manziel to enter the CFL after the former Texas A&M star completed “an ongoing assessment by an independent expert on the issue of violence against women, a review by legal counsel, and an in-person interview,” the statement read.
The vetting process on Manziel is said to be the most in-depth ever for a potential CFL signee, as his “character” was and is being scrutinized to the highest degree by the league after a number of off-field issues—including self-admitted substance abuse and at least one known trip to a rehab center—essentially derailed his NFL career before it even began.
After confirmation that Manziel would be eligible to play for Hamilton or any other team that offers him a contract, the Ticats had 10 days to make an offer or trade the the 25-year-old to another club. The two-year offer was made on the final day of that window, meaning Hamilton buys itself at least another year to negotiate with Manziel if nothing comes to fruition from its latest attempt to sign the former college standout, who has been on the team’s negotiating list since 2012.
He worked out with the team last year and Ticats coach June Jones said in December that he thought Manziel would be the best player to ever play in the CFL. “He can throw it and he can run it like nobody ever has been able to do,” Jones said.
Manziel was a star at Texas A&M from 2011-13, capturing the Heisman Trophy as the nation’s top player in 2012, while finishing fifth in voting for the prestigious award in 2013. He posted a 2-6 record as the starting quarterback with Cleveland in 2014 after being selected 22nd overall, but was released in March 2016 and hasn’t played a professional football game since.
