Manziel embracing challenge of becoming Johnny Canadian Football

HAMILTON - Johnny Manziel handed the ball off with seven seconds left in the first half of his CFL preseason debut Friday, watched his tailback get immediately tackled, then jogged toward the locker room as the final seconds ticked off the clock.

One problem: in the CFL, the clock must expire with a final play.

Manziel retreated to the huddle, took one more snap with the clock reading 0:00, then jogged off again with his teammates in tow.

“Still feeling it out. It’s a different game," Manziel said afterward of the adjustment to Canadian football's unique rules and rhythms.

He learned some important lessons against live fire Friday, and finished the game a respectable 9-of-11 passing for 80 yards with another 10 yards on two carries. Manziel made plays with his legs, found open receivers on scrambles, and showed flashes of why his new head coach, June Jones, suggested last year that Manziel will become the best player in CFL history.

At other times, Manziel looked very much like a player with a scant two weeks of practice under his belt, too often bailing out of the pocket by running backwards or into the arms of a waiting defender.

With his personal life back on track, Manziel has merely begun the process of rehabilitating his football acumen. If he’s ever to become Johnny Football again, he must first learn to become Johnny Canadian Football.

It won't happen right away. Jones has made it clear Manziel will not start when the Tiger-Cats open their regular season June 16 in Calgary. A backup role behind former Oregon passer and seven-year CFL veteran Jeremiah Masoli is the best Manziel can do for now.

Indeed, it's unrealistic to expect Manziel to take the CFL by storm. Doug Flutie and Warren Moon, quarterbacks who dominated in Canada before their NFL success, each needed a full season to adjust to the CFL and its eccentricities.

And Manziel has no reason to hurry. NFL teams will monitor his progress - scouts from at least two teams, including New York Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan, were scheduled to attend Friday’s game - but Manziel's deal with the Tiger-Cats ties him to the CFL for two seasons, meaning his next shot at the NFL won't come until 2020.

For now, Manziel must focus on acclimating to CFL rules with the goal of eventually rediscovering the on-field magic that won him the Heisman Trophy as a freshman and made him a first-round pick in the NFL before it all came crashing down in a mess of booze, clandestine Vegas trips, and a domestic violence case.

For a place to focus on football and only football, Manziel couldn’t do much better than Hamilton. An hour down the highway from Toronto and its big-city vibe and temptations, Hamilton is sort of like a quainter Canadian Pittsburgh. Tim Hortons Field, home of the Tiger-Cats, towers among the red brick homes that surround it. Smokestacks of the steel mills are visible from almost every seat in the house. For $15, you can literally park on the front lawn of a home across from the stadium’s main entrance.

Hamilton's blue-collar fans will embrace a hard worker on his second (or is it third?) chance, but they won't put up with a diva. That's one lesson Manziel appears to have taken to heart. He knows he can't erase his past, and he's made peace with that. He's motivated by it.

On multiple occasions Friday, Toronto Argonauts defenders reminded Manziel of his infamy - and he gave it right back.

"I’m not here to be pushed over," Manziel said after the game. "You can come at me because my name’s in the papers, my name’s on TV. You can come at me. I’m not backing down. I’m here for a reason. I’m here to play ball. I’m not going to be treated like s---."

This is a long game for Manziel. He started at the very bottom, and he has a long way to go before he approaches anything close to the top. He's finally on the way up, though.

Maybe the clock really did hit 0:00 on Manziel's career, but in Canada, you still get to run one more play.