After being unquestionably the most influential player in last night’s Super Bowl after racking up 6 tackles and 2.5 sacks (2 of which were strip-sacks), Von Miller was quick to defer the individual accolades to his teammates.
“If I could cut this award,” he said, “I would give it to DeMarcus [Ware] and [Derek] Wolfe and all the other guys. That’s what I would do. This is all great and stuff, but for me, I want to be with my guys.
“I would take the ring. The MVP is great, but I’ll take the ring. I want to go in there with my teammates.”
The 26-year-old spent last night hanging out with teammates, family, celebrities, media, and may have been the most popular person on the planet for that period of time. Which is why I found it particularly odd when Miller kept the theme of recognizing others by posting a heartfelt Instagram post at around 2 am last night imploring people to support his former Texas A&M teammate and Cleveland Browns throwaway Johnny Manziel.
Manziel, who of course was up at 2 am, responded by liking the picture and commenting ‘Champ.’
It seems every influential figure in sports from Von Miller to Shaquille O’Neal is hoping that the disgraced Manziel works to transform his game and public persona to be a serviceable player in the league.
Even when it looks like they have better things to do.
