COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- On Friday night, reigning Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel apologized to his Texas A&M teammates for his conduct this past offseason, which included an NCAA investigation into whether he improperly signed thousands of footballs, photographs and other memorabilia for money.
On Wednesday, the NCAA suspended Manziel for the first half of the Aggies' season opener, a 52-31 victory over Rice at Kyle Field, and all but declared the case closed.
As part of Manziel's punishment, the NCAA ordered him to address his teammates and share what lessons he learned from the scandal. Surprisingly, the NCAA didn't require Manziel to stand in the corner of Kyle Field during the first 30 minutes of Saturday's game for what it called an "inadvertent" violation of its rules.
"I just hope he learned that those actions may be actions that you think just hurt you, but they end up hurting the whole football team," Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said. "That was the real gist of his message to the team."
Less than 24 hours later, Manziel's sophomore season started on the fourth play of the second half, and it didn't take him long to help -- and hurt -- his football team again.