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On Friday night, Texas A&M quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel was picking apart Oklahoma’s defense en route to an impressively lopsided 41-13 victory in the Cotton Bowl. On Saturday, he went out to celebrate.
TMZ posted pictures of the Heisman Trophy winner partying at Dallas’ Avenu Lounge, all the while clutching an open bottle of Dom Perignon. TMZ, and others who have since picked up the story, quickly noted that the legal drinking age is 21, whereas Manziel, a red-shirt freshman, is only 20.
According to a wire report in the Morning News, “he posted a photo to Twitter of himself holding a handful of cash with the caption, “casino ballin,” then followed up with “Nothing illegal about being 18+ in a casino and winning money…KEEP HATING!”
This has prompted a mild amount of tut-tutting, but c’mon: Manziel, a college kid who just capped off what is possibly the most impressive football season ever by a freshman. The man deserves a drink. Surely, though, the NCAA has already launched a large-scale investigation into how Manziel got his hands on such pricey bubbly. One has to protect the integrity of the amateur game, after all.
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Manziel was mildly apologetic. “It’s tough knowing that everything you do is watched pretty closely, because I’m doing the same stuff I’ve always done,” he said on Sunday. “It’s just now people actually care what I do.”
At least the kid’s got a good head on his shoulders and realizes that his mistake wasn’t in drinking underage, per se, but doing so in a very public way. Next time, he’ll know to celebrate a bit more discreetly.
