Cabo spring breaks, courtside NBA seats, luxury boxes at concerts, appearances on Letterman, rounds of golf at Pebble Beach, batting practice in Major League Baseball stadiums...

I'm pretty sure that soon it will make more sense to just create a Johnny Manziel specific blog on HoustonPress.com to capture all of the exploits and bucket list adventures of one Johnny F. Football.

As mentioned earlier this morning, the A&M Heisman Trophy winner cranked a home run in batting practice at Petco Park on Monday afternoon off of Padres manager Bud Black (while wearing jeans, no less!). That was impressive, but mere prologue to his throwing out the first pitch of the game between Padres and the Nationals.

Check this out:

More »

In the game of "Bucket List," Johnny Manziel is officially running up the score on all of us.

Over the weekend, the Texas A&M Heisman Trophy winning quarterback capped off a round at Pebble Beach with his parents by knocking in a birdie on 18 to break 80. About the only surprising thing about that is that he was with his parents and not Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus.

So what's the best way to chase a round of golf at Pebble and a week in the sunny tranquility of the really nice parts of Southern California?

Well, how about a little batting practice at Petco Park?

More »

It must hurt to go into a season with the highest of hopes, dreams of a championship, go through the grind of an 82 game regular season to secure a one seed, and then have it all go up in smoke in a matter of about a week.

It's been so long since I had a team I was emotionally invested in head into a season with realistic title hopes to the degree of the Oklahoma City Thunder this past season, I almost forget what that it feels like.

But based on the reaction of Oklahoma City fans on Twitter last night after the Thunder finished their quiet fade into 2013 playoff oblivion, bowing out in five games to the Memphis Grizzlies, it appears to be the worst level of excruciating.

I mean, how else do you explain fully grown adults threatening bodily harm on Rockets point guard Patrick Beverley?

More »

"There's such a thing... as manners. A way of treating people. These fish have manners." -- Jerry Maguire

There is no easy way to disband an event like the Astros Wives' gala, a fantastic annual spectacle that's simultaneously raised over $4 million in 23 years for the Houston Area Women's Center while shedding a light upon the need to address an insidious subculture of domestic and sexual abuse in our society.

When you're Jim Crane and you decide that this event will no longer take place, there will be backlash, especially when you have a "goodwill equity account" that looks like a homeless man's credit report.

And make no mistake, after a seemingly endless string of public relations gaffes, that's the situation in which Crane and the Astros have put themselves.

More »

I'll be honest, until this weekend I didn't even know that the Iroquois Steeplechase in Nashville was a thing. Had no idea.

Even after I found out it was a thing, after seeing my colleague Clay Travis (Nashville talk-show host and founder of outkickthecoverage.com) tweet that he was on his way out there this weekend, I didn't think anything of it. I certainly didn't think to myself, "Iroquois Steeplechase...I GOT to get there before my time on earth is through."

Well, one Youtube catfight video later, I realize how completely and utterly wrong I was not to think that immediately.

More »

A couple years ago during the NFL lockout, much was made of the arrest list compiled by NFL people during the league's self-imposed downtime. (I use the word "people" because it wasn't just players. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a coach and a front office person make the list.)

When the season was set to resume in July 2011, we tallied things up to see which team had "won the race" for the Crimesman Trophy for offseason crime (with the actual trophy being a version of the Hesiman, except instead of the right arm pointing out holding off would-be defenders, both arms were being handcuffed).

Not surprisingly, Tampa Bay took home the prize with Kenny Britt singlehandedly putting the Titans in the runner-up spot.

Well, with the league getting a little (stress little) more risk-averse when it comes to employing turds, we might have to readjust how we track the Crimesman for the 2013 offseason, what with Titus Young and Cliff Harris both unemployed right now. These two titans of crime might force us to make the Crimesman an individual award.

"Titus Young and Cliff Harris?" some of you may be asking. Who? Well, I'll tell you.

More »

So this is my second post in about five days where I go through betting lines for the 2013 NFL season with a fine tooth comb. Keep in mind that none of the games I'm investing my time and energy in here take place until at least four months from now, but still, I pore over schedules, draft classes, trends, and such.

In college, I was a finance major, and it has become abundantly clear: if I had spent the amount of time throwing myself into my major in and after college as I do the betting lines for a football season that's still 120 days away, then I wouldn't have to wager on football.

But I'd also be miserable, and no one wants to be miserable. Let's get to these season win totals, shall we?

More »

Tick...tick...tick...

While the viral celebrities of the Internet age are, in our minds, all part of the same dysfunctional family (Ladies and gentlemen, the VIRAL Family! Tay, Chris, Antoine, Charles, and Zombie Kid! Ready for action!) , the fact of the matter is that none of them actually know each other and none of them knew exactly when their 15 minutes of fame would begin.

So while I am a huge fan of Charles Ramsey, as you know, it's hard for me to act like the interruption of his still-ticking-but-almost-up 15 minutes of fame by a new burgeoning, temporary star is the violation of some sort of "viral" code.

After all, you just never know when the clock on your quarter hour may begin. So, no, I don't blame you, Filomena Tobias, for harshing my man Chuck Ramsey's soon-to-be-expiring fame.

"Who is Filomena Tobias?" you may ask.

More »

The Internet has made our lives easier in so many ways.

Thanks to the Internet, we can now Christmas shop without having to leave the comfort of our own homes, Johnny Manziel can take an entire semester's worth of courses at Texas A&M without leaving his apartment or even putting on pants, and no longer do junior high boys have to sneak copies of Playboy out of a convenience store in order to look at naked women.

And perhaps most important, the Internet has allowed us to accelerate at breakneck speed our viral hero worship of vigilante dishwashers in Cleveland.

More »

Oooh, that's a big lock.

It's always good to get in on something at the beginning, at the ground floor. In the world of sports wagering, for bettors equally long on hubris and illness (gambling is a sickness, my friends), some betting outlets realize that no time is too soon to put out lines on NFL games.

The draft just ended about ten days ago, rookies are just now showing up to minicamp and there are several "name" free agents still on the street. But if there's a line on something, rest assured 1) people will think they know more than the oddsmakers, and 2) they will subsequently bet it.

With that in mind, here come the NFL betting lines on every game for Weeks 1 through 16 lines, courtesy of cantorgaming.com, but first my cautionary look back to the previous season that I will give you annually when I do this post:

More »