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WALLY HALL: Football ranks low on Manziel's problems

Johnny Football has become Johnny Foolish.

Johnny Manziel has chosen to be a coast-to-coast partier instead of a football player.

He's taken God-given talents and abilities, which many men would give 10 years of their life to have, and put them on the back burner.

Manziel is scheduled to appear today before a grand jury, which will decide whether to indict him in a domestic violence case involving his ex-girlfriend.

"I'm hoping to take care of the issues in front of me right now so I can focus on what I have to do if I want to play in 2016," Manziel said Tuesday in a statement provided to USA Today. "I also continue to be thankful to those who really know me and support me."

He made a similar statement before he entered alcohol rehab in early 2015.

Manziel has become a train wreck the whole world can't stop watching.

In February, his father said that if his son doesn't get help, he won't live to see his 24th birthday in December.

He's been cut by the Cleveland Browns, fired by two agents and dropped by Nike as an endorser. In a league desperate for quarterbacks, he is unsigned.

All of his problems are his problems.

It's not as simple as him being a spoiled brat, immature or just a kid. Manziel appears to have serious issues.

From the time he was in college to last weekend, there hasn't been a party he didn't like.

When he was a football player at Texas A&M, where he won the Heisman Trophy in 2012, he crashed a fraternity party at the University of Texas.

It seems most of his college shenanigans were tossed under the rug, but in the glaring eye of the NFL, he's been exposed time after time.

At this point, it isn't about football.

Manziel never was going to be a great NFL quarterback. In college, his scrambling and elusive running were almost legendary.

In the NFL, against the world's best players, he was average at best.

His career passing statistics are 258 attempts, 147 completions, 7 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. He's run 46 times for 259 yards and 1 touchdown.

He doesn't need to think about landing on an NFL roster this fall. He needs to think about where his life is going 10 years from now.

He needs to think about what he is doing to himself and his family.

He's a 23-year-old man acting like a 16-year-old whose parents are out of town for the weekend. It is way too late for his parents to ground him or give him a timeout; besides, he's doing that to himself with his bad behavior.

It might be good for him if the Dallas judicial system gave him 60 days in lockup. Or at least 90 days of therapy with a real therapist, someone like Alan Pogue in North Little Rock, who makes a difference in people's lives.

It is not too late for Manziel, but his health -- mentally and physically -- needs to be his focus, not football.

Being a responsible adult should be his priority, not lining up under center again.

His family loves and supports him. They want to help.

He has friends who care deeply about him, many of them at Texas A&M.

And he has people who are riding his fame and name to get into parties through the front door. Parties that Manziel has no business attending because he appears to be addicted to them.

If Manziel can get a grip on the demons haunting him, stay straight and clean, then he'll get another shot at football. But it is a game, not life.

Johnny Manziel can still be Johnny Football, but not as long as he acts like Johnny Foolish.

Sports on 04/21/2016

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