Obit John David Crow Football
The late John David Crow, Texas A&M halfback, center, and his parents hold the 1957 Heisman Trophy. Crow and Texas A&M's only other Heisman winner, Browns back-up quarterback Johnny Manziel, came from far different eras and influences.
(AP/File Photo)
CLEVELAND, Ohio - "Sing Sing on the Brazos."
Students at rival schools called Texas A&M that in the 1950s when John David Crow played there. It was a military school. Everyone was in the Corps of Cadets. The first women weren't admitted until 1963, six years after Crow won the Heisman Trophy.
The school was located in College Station, Texas, which was bigger than a hamlet but several growth spurts shy of a small town.
Those were the "Old Army" days, a term going back to the horse cavalry before and after World War I. It is a concept that romanticized the Aggies' spare lifestyle and warrior caste. "Old Army" meant a person was "Rough, Tough, Real Stuff, Texas A&M," as the saying still goes.
Crow was all of that. He died peacefully last week in College Station, where he had played, served as Texas A&M's athletic director, and lived. He was the first Texas A&M player to win the Heisman and, remarkably, the only one to do so who played for Bear Bryant anywhere.
Besides turning out more Army officers than West Point, what made Texas A&M famous in those days was really "Old Football," as it was played by Crow and coached by Bryant. The Bear was so Old School he didn't hesitate to tell his best player hard truths as he saw them.
"You owe us a game."
Crow had committed the sin of chuckling at a teammate's joke on the bus ride to the stadium at Arkansas in 1955, in a game that ended in a 7-7 tie. In 1957 Crow's Heisman year, the Aggies were back in the Ozarks.
"Crow, you owe us a game. You didn't take the last damn game up here seriously,'' Bryant growled.
Crow rushed for 116 yards, scored a touchdown and then made, in the days when players played both offense and defense, a game-saving interception at the goal line in a 7-6 victory.
Old Football and Johnny Football
The only thing Crow had in common with A&M's second Heisman winner, the former "Johnny Football," the Browns' back-up quarterback Johnny Manziel, was the bronze statuette the winners receive.
Manziel played in an antithetical era of non-reg (civilian) students, in a College Station whose population has grown to over 100,000. In an interdependent team game, he was a symbol of celebrity and individuality.
Manziel thought outside the box, played hard both between the lines and outside them, and made up plays as he went along.
His electrifying presence in the uber-competitive Southeastern Conference, transformed Texas A&M and took it out of the shadow of its ancient rival, the University of Texas, in which it had languished for decades.
But the Manziel collegiate legend went down hard in his wanton, wild flame-out of a rookie NFL season. He was so irresponsible that even many Aggie fans tuned him out.
In his first news conference last week after his return from a rehab facility to treat alcohol dependency, he promised no more Johnny Football persona, no more money scratch sign, no more Las Vegas weekends and no more swan boats.
The problem has always been that his actions don't match his words.
The days of the coach as dictator have faded, but an echo or two of Bryant's rebuke of Crow in Manziel's ears might have been very effective last season.
A bigger debt
By contrast, much of what Browns coach Mike Pettine said last season fell somewhere between an attempted whitewash and sheer poppycock as he downplayed or denied Manziel's startling lack of preparedness.
Manziel's first start in a critical, late-season game on the lakefront against Cincinnati turned out not to be the Johnny Cakewalk Manziel had expected. The Browns' most honored player, left tackle Joe Thomas, referred to Manziel and his pal, the even more troubled and self-indulgent Josh Gordon, as "bad apples."
Manziel's season devolved into injury and an infamous night of partying before the Browns left for their final road game.
Manziel owes fans here more like a whole season than a game. At the very least he owes them a much more professional effort.
A second chance
Crow didn't believe in magic. The second player taken in the 1958 NFL Draft, toiling for a bedraggled Chicago Cardinals franchise and then the 49ers, Crow made the NFL's 1960s All-Decade team and was named the 49ers' most courageous player.
He knew preparation beat deception, especially if the latter resulted in only fooling oneself.
The Browns kept Manziel around. Maybe now he has been transformed by his struggles. Maybe not. Maybe he will show he can play in the NFL. Maybe not
As for the Bear, he probably would have cut Manziel and personally cleaned out his locker.