With every league that has been created in the past 4-5 years, it is inevitable that Johnny Manziel gets linked to it in some way, shape or form, and the AFL took its turn this weekend:
"Absolutely," Hutton said. "Some of them have received personal [direct messages] from me. I reached out to Johnny Manziel. So, Johnny, I'm a Texas guy. So, if you're ready to come back and indoors -- because you did very well -- we will take you. We will find a spot for you."
The video is only 45 seconds long, but man is it cringy.
Look, I get it. You want to make some noise and drive some eyeballs to the AFL, and Johnny is a guy that is always going to move the needle. His documentary 'Untold: Johnny Football' is still fresh in people's minds since it debuted last year and Manziel gets the people going with different "What if.." scenarios with how his professional career panned out.
But it just seems like a desperate plea for attention with the way it went down.
If you are going to seriously sign Johnny Manziel, I don't think you would speculate on it -- you would get the deal done and make it happen. Imagine how impactful a "BREAKING NEWS: Johnny Manziel signs with the West Texas Desert Hawks for the 2024 AFL Season" would be versus this speculation garbage.
Commission Hutton himself has said that he prefers to speak on things when the 'ink is dried' on the deal, but then he turns around and is engagement farming with clickbait like this?
Many folks in the Arena football world are on the same page with this and calling it out for what it is:
Then the Commissioner himself hopped in the mud:
It's always a good sign when your league commissioner is saying "it's NOT a PR stunt!" when he was doing a full on interview with TMZ Sports about the league..for PR.
He could have easily said "we have some players we are in contact with and reaching out to", but he very intentionally name dropped Manziel! He knows what he was doing!
To me, this was a very intentional effort to snatch some eye balls, and to an extent it worked. But here's to hoping that these clickbait tactics are few and far between for the league moving forward.
Side note: He also mentions that the AFL is "getting NFL guys like Matt Elam and guys who have been in the NFL, saying this is where I am going to showcase my talents".
One problem: Matt Elam is signed with the Massachusetts Pirates of the IFL -- a totally separate league from AFL -- and Elam notably made the game sealing INT in Week 1 last weekend. Just a tough interview overall.