Alabama Bar Features 'Johnny Football' Piñata
In the days leading up to the highly anticipated Alabama-Texas A&M grudge match, one enterprising bar owner has made the Aggies' star quarterback the target of his disdain.
Otey's Bar in Mountain Brook, 67 miles northeast of the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa, has put up an effigy of Texas A&M's Heisman winner Johnny Manziel. Manziel is notorious locally for starring in the Aggies' shock 29-24 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide in December 2012, where he gained 345 of his team's 418 yards. Alabama was ranked #1 in the polls prior to the game; the loss dropped them to #4. Alabama regained the #1 spot and won the BCS national championship in the same season.
In 2013, though, Manziel will not exactly be an unknown entity. He made news during the summer over a "sign-for-play" scandal where he was alleged to have received money in exchange for autographs. The NCAA and Texas A&M have since given Manziel a half-game suspension that he served against Rice. He taunted Rice players and fans by making a "money " sign with his fingers and pretending to sign his autograph.
The "Johnny Piñata" effigy is 30 inches tall, making it "life size", according to Otey's Bar patrons. The relatively diminutive quarterback is 6 feet and one inch tall. It shows Manziel wearing an A&M jersey, with a dollar sign in place of his number, and holding a Sharpie pen and a wad of $100 bills. Even the face was not spared -- it has pimples all over, resembling someone who has just recovered from chicken pox.
Customers will be able to have a swing at Johnny Piñata during Wednesday's trivia night, and if there's anything left over, on Saturday night, following the Alabama-Texas A&M game. "It's fun to take a whack at a piñata. It's all in good spirit and fun, to poke at Texas A&M and Johnny Football," Otey's Bar owner Will Haver told The Birmingham News.
However, the challenge is to keep it intact long enough for it to last until the Wednesday trivia game.
"I'm sure most people want to go ahead and have a go at it," Haver said.
Who knows, keeping Johnny Piñata under lock and key might be the safest bet, just like how the Alabama faithful want him to be shackled on Saturday.