copied then pasted for your reading pleasure. Kevinz Scrubinski
Johnny Manziel and Cam Newton have a lot in common, beyond their stiff-arm statues and their place atop the short list of special players who've bedeviled Nick Saban.
Manziel, in just one year and one half of playing time, already has set the career record as the most hated player in SEC history.
Newton holds the single-game mark for intense public hostility.
No player has ever walked into a more hostile atmosphere than Newton did Nov. 26, 2010, in Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. The Auburn quarterback was greeted by official and unofficial scorn and derision, from the students tossing Monopoly money at him during warmups to the P.A. system playing "Take the Money and Run" and "Son of a Preacher Man."
On a day when the ancient Roman Circus Maximus came to the Iron Bowl, Newton ate the lion and hushed a hundred thousand mouths.
If that weren't enough, in leading the greatest comeback in series history and keeping Auburn's run to a national title alive, Newton helped bring out the excess and toxic Bama in Harvey Updyke.
Manziel has yet to spark any criminal behavior by an opposing fan, but he's probably more despised by more people who've never met him than Newton. The Texas A&M quarterback certainly has moved more retired coaches to voice their desire to assault him.
Lou Holtz, who once put an official in a headlock, said he would've grabbed Manziel "by the throat." Barry Switzer, who let the inmates run the asylum at Oklahoma, said he would've jerked Manziel's facemask.
Now we know what keeps old coaches going. Money, a microphone and a healthy dose of false bravado.
What did Manziel do to unleash the inner Woody Hayes in the septuagenarian fantasies of Holtz and Switzer? He didn't stop to listen to Kevin Sumlin's reprimand after earning an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Rice.
That's funny on so many levels.
On the penalty, Manziel's not the first former Heisman winner to jaw with an opponent. The sainted Tim Tebow made a similar move in the face of an Oklahoma defender and added a Gator chomp as the ultimate taunt with a minute and change left in Florida's BCS Championship Game victory over the Sooners.
I don't recall anyone predicting that Tebow's behavior would hasten the demise of Urban Meyer's wannabe dynasty. The real culprit there would turn out to be Saban.
Saban and company couldn't put Newton "in his place" even at their place. Can they go on the road and save college football from Johnny Football?
On Manziel's failure to stop and bend over so Sumlin could spank him, anyone remember when Saban actually did spank a redshirt freshman backup quarterback named AJ McCarron?
Go back and check the video from that 2010 Mississippi State game. McCarron never stops walking as he approaches the sideline and Saban approaches him. The quarterback hears and feels Saban's wrath and takes it, literally and figuratively, in stride.
I don't remember anyone drawing the conclusion that McCarron had disrespected Saban.
The widespread outrage over Manziel's behavior during the Rice game has been more over the top than the quarterback's antics during his well-documented off-season.
Let's see what actually happened last Saturday. He signed an air autograph. If that made you reach for your smelling salts, you probably still have a standard definition television.
He rubbed his fingers together in a gesture most people interpret as "show me the money," although he may have been mimicking his buddy, the rapper Drake. Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd flashed the exact same sign after scoring a touchdown against Georgia. Did anyone depict Boyd as a ticking time bomb?
Manziel may be impetuous, irresponsible and immature, but what does that make the likes of Holtz and Switzer? The more everyone focuses on what the punky QB does in his idle moments, the more they forget how good he still is with the ball in his hands.
Alabama finds itself in a unique position for the second time in the last four seasons. Despite its role as the team everyone wants to see go down, because it hardly ever happens, a lot of people will be pulling for the Crimson Tide a week from Saturday as they were on Black Friday in 2010.
Saban and company couldn't put Newton "in his place" even at their place. Can they go on the road and save college football from Johnny Football?
Like Newton, it may be easy to hate Manziel. Beating him's another story.
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