Podcast

Podcast Final Paper

For my podcast, I focused on the topic of Johnny Manziel. My entire life I’ve been a sports fan, but football has always been my favorite sport to watch. I love the NFL, but College Football has been my passion. The fever really kicked it when I attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln my freshman year. Honestly, it’s hard not to go to a game in that atmosphere and be hooked. Since 2009, I don’t know if I’ve gone a Saturday without watching multiple college football games. There’s something about the sport, between the passion of the college players and the win-or-go-home mentality of the rankings that has me hooked. I remember back in 2012 when I watched Johnny Manziel. There are a lot of great, exciting players in College Football, but nothing compared to Johnny Football. That’s why I chose to do my New Media/Technology in Sport Podcast on Johnny Manziel. He’s become such a polarizing figure in sports that it’s tough to go an hour watching ESPN without him referenced. He’s to the level of media attention that ESPN covers a significant amount of his personal life, even if it seems meaningless. Further, as it relates to this class, my podcast on Manziel focuses on how media can really drive the attention that a player receives. For example, ESPN, as aforemtnioned, has the power to drive the perception of a player with how they portray him or her. Another example of media and technology is the way social media has changed how athletes can be perceived. As I alluded to in my podcast, Manziel was caught in videos and pictures drinking, partying, getting kicked out of a Texas frat party, and in a bathroom seemingly rolling a $20 – an indication of drug use.

            Another reason that I wanted to cover the controversial topic of Manziel is because I truly think he is one of the few athletes where a non-hardcore sport fan will tune in to watch him. What I mean by that is there are sports fans out there who will only watch a game every once in a while, or they will only watch their favorite teams. Johnny Manziel changes that. There are only a handful of players who can do this, such as LeBron James and Tiger Woods, to name a few. These players are so good and so exciting that fans will tune in just to watch that specific player, even in a team sport such as basketball, baseball, and football. While Tiger Woods is arguably the best golfer ever, it becomes a little easier to stand out in an individual sport. Some of the seemingly impossible plays that Manziel is able to keep alive and convert are what make him so special. As I referenced in my podcast, we all look back at his razzle-dazzle play that had seemingly fallen apart, inevitably what we thought would lead to a sack, interception, or fumble. However, in the end, after running circles from one side of the field to the other, he managed to escape everyone and throw a touchdown in an eventual upset over the then #1 team in the nation, the Alabama Crimson Tide. These type of plays become synonymous with Manziel and people tune in just to watch the magic he displays on the field. Players that are this exciting are rare, but they are also good for the game. However, with their popularity inevitably brings controversy. Look at the other two players I referenced: LeBron James and Tiger Woods. There’s no lack of controversy and conflicting perceptions there. The same holds true with Johnny Manziel. That’s what makes these players so popular though.

            In this podcast, I started out by giving a background of Johnny Manziel. While nearly everyone, including those who aren’t sports fans, knows who he is, it served as a reminder of how he came to fame. Next I followed my introduction with a brief background on some of the stories and instances that built the controversy. My research here came from sources like ESPN, Wikipedia, Texas A&M’s website, etc. Wikipedia obviously isn’t the most credible source, but it often outlines a detailed personal background on public figures, which proved beneficial to my background introduction. After my introduction and background information, I went on to provide a few relevant examples of how we characterize and subsequently criticize athletes who do not act how we expect them to act – seemingly without a personality. Anymore, athletes are expected to go to college, sit in their dorm, play on Saturdays, get drafted, be quiet, perform on Sundays, and then retire. That’s not realistic though. However, that lack of realism is what makes sports so great. There’s also controversy. There’s always a winner and a loser. There’s always a good guy and a bad guy. But the criticism and shunning comes with it. As I mentioned in my podcast, examples such as Michael Sam, Tim Tebow, and LeBron James all illustrate my point. When athletes act out of this “norm” they get put in the media spotlight, where they are constantly monitored and analyzed. They get labeled “distractions” by the media, whether they actually are to the team or not.

            The spotlight from the media also shapes public perception. For example, as I talked about in my podcast, look at Michael Sam. He comes out as gay and everyone praises him for his courage and willingness to lead. Yet, an analyst, Tony Dungy, makes a comment about how he’s a distraction to the St. Louis Rams, and now you have fans who wonder why the Rams get all this media attention over someone who may not even play this season. It was a matter of finding these examples and relating them to the point I was trying to make in reference to Johnny Manziel. I wanted to prove that Manziel’s perception was consistent with the way media shapes how we view athletes. This was probably the most challenging part of my podcast because Manziel is so unique. We’ve never really seen anyone like him. Yet I wanted to prove the point that the media really can dictate our view of athletes.

            Lastly, in my podcast, I went on to express my viewpoint of Johnny Manziel and his impact on sports and football. The underlying theme that I wanted to get across, as I’ve outlined in this paper and in my podcast, is that Johnny Manziel, like him or not, is great for sports. He has a personality. He’s controversial. He’s fun to watch. Those three things, significant factors in what makes fans love or hate him, fuel the flame of his popularity, whether positive or negative. He’s not just another player. He isn’t an Andrew Luck that keeps to himself and is never in the news unless it’s for his play. Instead, Manziel is in the spotlight and he seemingly loves it. It seems that we see Manziel on ESPN now more than we did in college and he hasn’t even played a professional down. Yet his popularity continues to soar because of his controversial 21-year-old antics. In the end though, as I expressed in my opinion, Manziel is what football needs.