Johnny Manziel has been a major source of headlines in the sports community for the last few years for more reasons than one.  In his college career at Texas A&M, he threw for a total of 7,820 yards, ran for 2,169 and became the first freshmen to ever win the coveted Heisman Trophy--but that's not where all of his attention came from.  While some headlines held statistics, others read, "Manziel kicked out of UT frat party," and "Manziel fined after party."  It isn't uncommon to see pictures of him hanging out with A-list celebrities or even drinking champagne on inflatable geese.  "Johnny being Johnny," one Instagram caption read, "Gosh he loves to party." Johnny Football isn't just a top-notch college athlete, he's the ultimate party boy.  

That's what people thought, anyway.  Until a more recent headline surfaced.  That one read: "Johnny Manziel Goes to Rehab."

Johnny Manziel was never a stranger to the party scene but I doubt people would have seen this coming just a couple of years ago.  Sure, his heavy party habits were always under some scrutiny (as are the activities of any public figure, really), but there were always his defenders telling people to leave him alone.  Jen Floyd Engel of Fox Sports called for his critics to "Give Manziel a freaking break" in the summer of 2014, writing that "this is what 20-year-old college kids sometimes do.  They party with friends.  They get over served.  They oversleep…[he] is being a normal college kid…"

I agreed with this sentiment for a while.  I show up to stuff late, but I don't get fined for it.  I may have a few funny pictures of me taken at parties but they don't wind up on major news outlets with criticizing captions on them.  Sure, an athlete as talented and valuable as Manziel should have some attention drawn to him but I agreed that, really, he wasn't doing anything any of us haven't done in college.

Eventually, however, his party habits seemed to get the better of him.  During the 2014 NFL Draft, what many predicted to be a Top 5 Pick ended up getting passed over by 21 teams, including the Cleveland Browns for whom he now plays.  "I think he's an arrogant little prick," former NFL head coach Barry Switzer reportedly stated, summing up the public's polarizing opinion of Manziel and his notorious displays of debauchery. 

When a picture of Manziel rolling up a dollar bill in a restroom surfaced, speculation emerged that Manziel may have been using cocaine (obviously a big no-no for the NFL).  ESPN's Skip Bayless suggested that Manziel was an alcoholic on national television.  Then on February 3rd, 2015 Johnny Football checked into an unknown rehabilitation facility.

It's great that Johnny Manziel is seeking the help he needs.  He has the support of his team and, from what I've seen, a good amount of his fans.  This could be the beginning of a happy ending to a rocky story and for that we applaud Manziel.

But this could've been a much uglier story.  Giving in and volunteering yourself for help is tough; doing so when the whole world is watching you is tougher.

I think Manziel's treatment (and subsequent concession that he has some sort of substance addiction) raises a lot of questions.  Should we be giving college athletes the heavy amount of media attention that we do?  Is it fair that you or I can go to a party without anyone blinking an eye while a kid our age has to be blasted by the whole country for doing the same?  Is it possible that intense scrutiny of someone as immature as a college-aged kid is a leading cause of the issues some of these athletes face?  And it's not just athletes…it's a good amount of celebrities that lead lives under the media's microscope.  Take a second to think of a few celebrities--I'll bet at least one of the ones you just thought of has had some history of drug or alcohol abuse within the span of their career.  Is there a correlation between substance issues and fame?

That question is obviously inconclusive and nobody can say for sure if Manziel's issues began because of his inability to handle the enormous pressure associated with his superstar stature.  But one thing you can definitely say is that this is a kid who has a sickness that everyone, especially in college, is equally vulnerable to.  Yet Manziel has an entire community of football fans listening to him be called an arrogant, alcoholic liar by prominent media figures.  Under that kind of pressure, I think it would be very, very hard to admit to yourself that you have a problem because by doing so you are also admitting that to the millions of people who watch you.  Knowing this would make it that much harder to take the step Manziel did to receive help.  And that is why this story has a good ending after all--because it could have easily ended very differently.