Late in a forgettable Canadian Football League debut for Johnny Manziel, the announcers began to refer endlessly to the “flashes.”
Flashes are Manziel speak for the deft maneuvers in the pocket. The beautiful, balletic plays that evade rushers, roll him outside of the tackle box and connect him with a receiver running what looks to be the fifth or sixth broken-play emergency route. In these moments the 25-year-old former Heisman Trophy winner can still drop a dime. He hits his target in stride, in the only place his receiver can catch it. It makes the fans stand up and do that money thing with their hands, the gesture Manziel used to do in a different time, when he was supposedly a different person.