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Jason Cook on Johnny Manziel, the NCAA and more

September 5, 2013
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Key quotes from Jason Cook interview:

"We thought hell had broken lose the day after the Wright Thompson article was released."

"It has been a wild ride this off-season."

"Its the first time in 47 years that there is a college athlete on the cover of Time Magazine."

"I was getting as many calls from TMZ as any other outlet. He is a world figure. It is amazing how transcendent he is."

"There is an insatiable appetite for Johnny Manziel stories in the media, whether it is true or not."

"It is a situation where the reason why Johnny Manziel is on the cover of Time is because he drives ratings."

"What’s happening with A&M is significant, and I can't even imagine what the ratings are going to be for the Alabama game."

"There were approximately 4.2 million viewers watching the A&M/Rice game"

"Regarding the NCAA decision…we reached a win-win situation. It was a win for Johnny Manziel. It was a win for A&M."

"Eric Hyman was a steady hand and a guiding force as we went through the situation with the NCAA.'

"The goal was that we wanted Johnny Manziel to be eligible to play. That was the #1 goal all along."

"We think that the ultimate statement was made when Johnny Manziel ran out against Rice."

"After we got the NCAA issue resolved, the media has sure amped it up quite a bit"

"The media was a force in his emergence on the scene at the national level. There has never been a college player this scrutinized"

"I know that it is extremely tough for our fan base, people are coming after us because we are on the top now."

"I have to remind people that the E in ESPN stands for Entertainment."

“Just because we aren't coming out publicly does not mean that we are sitting idly doing nothing."

"It is intense here. I wear maroon shirts here. I have the logo on my chest. It affects me too."

"If you look at it objectively.... we are a little bruised, not mortally wounded."

"A lot of times in a really good sound PR strategy, no one knows what is happening behind the scenes."

"Texas A&M is bigger than Johnny Manziel. We have to protect our student-athlete."

"The triangle of ESPN --- entertainment, news and revenue -- has become a paradox."

"So you think the media is a circus now? Just wait [for the Bama game]"

"This Alabama game is going to be 10 times bigger than the Florida game in 2012."

"Even with out any official announcement... we are preparing for College Game Day."

"It will be the first time for CBS at Kyle Field since 1989."

"Paul Finebaum is the best at trolling fan bases in history. And he has made a living doing that."

"The best thing we can do next week is for our fans to be pro Johnny Manziel, pro Kevin Sumlin and pro Texas A&M."

"Use [the Alabama/A&M game] as an opportunity to promote our school, not to go negative on someone else."

"Whenever we do interviews and deal with the media, we have a strategy in place."

"A lot of people are making this all about Manziel by throwing out the statement that A&M is making millions off of him. We started the plan for the new Kyle Field before Johnny took a snap. We moved to the SEC before Johnny took a snap. What you are seeing is that Johnny has definitely accelerated these plans... things are building on top of each other."

"All these things are building on top of each other. It is a perfect storm, it is not solely Johnny Manziel."

"We just click off history like crazy around here right now.”

"By having the Aggie Dance Team on Kyle, we wanted to add some pageantry and color. It was an opportunity to showcase something else about Texas A&M. The Dance Team did not take away anything from traditions. We want to add-to not subtract-from."

"From our jersey portfolio... #12 has always been really strong. We only receive $50,000 in royalties of ALL jersey numbers."

"Mike Slive's background is in NCAA compliance. He worked on the A&M issue in the 80's. He is very familiar with it."

"When I read TexAgs, I laugh, cry... pull my hair out."

"I thought that the demons of the bevel were cast out last year. Maybe they are coming back."

"From a football standpoint, Eric Hyman's philosophy is that A&M wants to play a team from Texas."

"Soccer has Baylor on Sunday night here at Ellis Field. If you want to bring in the Big 12 hate, here's your opportunity."

"What happens on the field determines who wins the Heisman. We said this last year... we had the same noise."

"[Johnny speaking] is a situation that we have to be comfortable with... and he is comfortable with. That is coming soon."

Discussion from...

Jason Cook on Johnny Manziel, the NCAA, Alabama and more

15,471 Views | 24 Replies | Last: 11 yr ago by Drawkcab
Gabe Bock
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Jason Cook on Johnny Manziel, the NCAA and more
Straight Talk
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AG
Good stuff!
Jim Benson 63
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So who was the last college football player to be on the cover of Time? In 1966?
you moran
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According to this...

CBS Sports' Bruce Feldman points out that Manziel is the first college football player to grace the cover of Time since since Notre Dame's Terry Hanratty and Jim Seymour in 1966.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/09/johnny_manziel_cover_boy_for_t.html
HappyMaroon
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Thanks, guys.
nmb12ag
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quote:
The goal was that we wanted Johnny Manziel to be eligible to play. That was the #1 goal all along.

Anybody else have a little bit of an issue with this? Call me a do-gooder all you want, but did they really put this above actually discovering the truth and protecting Johnny and the university?
Slother93
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Look at the bigger picture - they want him to be eligible for as long as possible. You can't do that by just sweeping stuff under the rug. You better believe they had investigators out looking for all the dirt they could find.
jag2k2
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Gabe 10 times 10 is 100 not 20. : )
trueaggie2782
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quote:
Gabe 10 times 10 is 100 not 20. : )


Is it bad that I thought the same thing, lol
aggiebrad94
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Jason Cook is good for our university. It's sad that some posters do to him what they complain about the media doing to Johnny.
TMartin
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Jason Cook is a class act with polished thought-out responses. He prepares.
nmb12ag
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^^ completely agree. After watching this in its entirety I have a lot of respect and tremendous faith in what he's doing.

I agreed with his comments about ESPN too. You can't attack publicly through press conferences. You have to go behind the scenes, getting stories out through other outlets and what not. More people need to listen to this.
Drawkcab
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Haha, loved the bevel question.
powerbiscuit
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quote:
Anybody else have a little bit of an issue with this? Call me a do-gooder all you want, but did they really put this above actually discovering the truth and protecting Johnny and the university?




I don't have a problem with them thinking it, but I don't think it was a smart thing to say out loud, much less to the media




LatinAggie1997
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Good responses by Cook.
northsidegreek06
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Gig 'em Cook. Know how it is to get heat when people can't see what's going on in the background. Thanks for doing what is oftentimes a thankless and extremely important job!
AnalogyAg
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quote:
I don't have a problem with them thinking it, but I don't think it was a smart thing to say out loud, much less to the media


Really? I have a real problem with it if it means having Johnny eligible was #1 priority.

First priority should be to find out the truth. Second priority should be to protect the institution.

Then can move on to our football season.
powerbiscuit
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sure, it would be smart to word it like that

"We are going to try really hard, do our best, to find the truth" [tearing up, biting bottom lip, fighting back tears a la William Jefferson Clinton]
Gabe Bock
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Haha...the math said that it's 100 and not 20 but he's saying that it's twice as big of an "importance difference" to Texas than the Florida game was. And since the Florida game was 10 times bigger than Texas, according to Jason, then the 'Bama game is 20 times bigger than Texas.
aggiesruletheworld
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Gabe- can you or Jason Cook support the message of this thread? It's too big an opportunity to pass up so I'm hoping we get the power of Texags behind it. Any support by you or him would help. Many thanks.

http://texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=2361697&forum_id=5
AusAg32
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Enjoyed that!
CanyonAg77
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I've never met Jason, but his in-laws are great Aggies, great people, and big supporters of A&M. I suspect he is as well.
jhays2
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quote:
The goal was that we wanted Johnny Manziel to be eligible to play. That was the #1 goal all along.


I didn't think Jason Cook meant it as "sweeping things under the rug" or not "discovering the truth". I took it as a reference to complaints about A&M and/or the athletic department not responding to the negative publicity with some sort of overt pushback or media campaign.

In short, you have to be careful what you say publicly while an NCAA investigation is under way. If a public statement creates problems for you in the investigation, then you err on the side of saying nothing. Since the main goal was to keep Manziel eligible, PR always took a back seat to what the lawyers were working on. The PR work that was done, thus had to be behind the scenes and low-key.


Drawkcab
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Gabe, can you call this issue to Jason's attention?

http://mobile.texags.com/Forums/5/Topics/2363960
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