Commissioner Randy Ambrosie doesn’t believe that Johnny Manziel orchestrated his own exit from the CFL.
The controversial quarterback was booted out of the league on Wednesday after the CFL terminated his deal with the Montreal Alouettes and told the eight remaining clubs it wouldn’t register a contract for a Manziel.
Justin Dunk of 3DownNation has reported that the ban came about because Manziel missed required meetings with people tasked to help him stay on the straight and narrow – a violation of the agreement set out by the league. That’s led to speculation that Manziel, eager to pursue opportunities with the AAF, orchestrated his release by intentionally violating those conditions.
But Ambrosie isn’t buying it.
“It’s an interesting theory and I’ve heard it before so I suppose, let’s say hypothetically, if he had come here and had hoisted the Grey Cup and set an all-time CFL passing record and there was nothing but green lights for him going back, then that could setup I’m going to violate my conditions,” Ambrosie told TSN 1290 radio in Winnipeg.
“But the conditions that we set were ones that violating them could have a profoundly negative impact on his life. So I would say if that was the case, he paid a very dear price or potentially will pay a very dear price for wanting to cease that opportunity.
“That just doesn’t add up to me, I don’t think you consciously set yourself up for problems in your life for what’s being billed as an escape strategy.”
And while it initially looked like Manziel would have an immediate opportunity with the AAF, the league has since reconsidered its position. Chairman Tom Dundon said the league would give Manziel the chance to work out for all eight teams but co-founder Charlie Ebersol has put that on hold.
“We’re trying to get to the bottom of what happened in Canada,” Ebersol told the Associated Press. “We want to be a league of opportunity to the best available players, assuming they are available contractually, with a clean bill of health and a clean criminal record.”
Ambrosie says the outcome with Manziel is “disappointing” but that the league did its due diligence in setting up conditions that the player had to follow in order to remain in good standing.
“We worked with some tremendous experts that helped us understand what we could do to help him not only be a productive player on the field, but potentially maybe exorcise some of the demons that had challenged his personal life and they were pretty clear that if he couldn’t stay within the guard rails of the conditions we’d set that there was a risk, that it created risks for him that weren’t acceptable to our league,” Ambrosie said.
”We had the greatest of intentions and honourable intentions and it’s disappointing that it didn’t work out. I guess it goes to prove the adage that you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.”
Would the league do it again, given the outcome with Manziel and criticism the CFL has faced in some circles for permitting a player with a public incident of domestic violence to continue his career in Canada? Ambrosie isn’t sure.
“The lesson through the lens of a little reflection will be: would we do it again? I’m just not really in a position to answer that today. I’d need a little more time to reflect on it. But I am disappointed for him,” Ambrosie said.
