Johnny Manziel is nearly a year removed from being Texas A&M's quarterback, but the immense popularity he enjoyed in two spell-binding seasons in College Station is still having an impact on his successor. New Aggies quarterback Kenny Hill, a budding celebrity himself after his 511 passing yards against South Carolina broke Manziel's school record, has been told by TAMU coach Kevin Sumlin not to have his photograph taken with fans.
Hill said he is politely declining requests for pictures, according to chron.com, given some of the trouble that social media photos created for his popular predecessor.
Of course, it wouldn't be accurate to suggest that Manziel was always aware that he was being photographed, or, in some cases, the subject of a video. Sure, there were some posed photographs that helped shape his image as a party animal. But there were plenty of other instances where Manziel was an unwilling, or at least, unknowing, subject of social media exposure.
In other words, Sumlin can make all the rules he wants, but he'll never be able to legislate good judgment. Hill can decline all the photo requests he wants, but keeping himself out of compromising or embarrassing situations in public is a lesson Hill will have to learn on his own.
If he hasn't already learned by watching.
Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter *@ChaseGoodbread.*