More on Johnny Football's family tree...
http://deadspin.com/the-long-con-how-the-manziels-conquered-america-1040593220
Some highlights...
the "Texas oil fortune" that "still funds the family." As Manziel's father, Paul, told Thompson, "It's not Garth Brooks money, but it's a lot of money."
The Manziels arrived in Texas after cockfighting was outlawed, but they wound up with a breed named after them anyway.
The Louisiana Supreme Court's written opinion called this a "most unlikely story," propping up the decision of the district judge, who had declared himself "fully convinced Manziel participated in a crooked and dishonest deal [...] and was, in fact, a party to it."
Meanwhile Bobby Joe's wells continued to produce—when they weren't exploding, that is.
Manziel spent weeks in the hospital, while Bowdoin earned a Carnegie Hero prize and a breed of fighting cocks named in his honor.11 It was never established if the explosion was an accident or an assassination attempt.
When architects asked to see Manziel's blueprints for the 20,000-seat "Oil Palace," he insisted he needed no blueprints.
While his God-given talents may have impelled him toward amateur geology, his passion in life was cockfighting—Time called him "the biggest of Texas chicken men"
Before he was even a teenager, Manziel was a champion cockfighter (the image above is from 1916). He dedicated a large portion of his land to raising more than 1,200 battle roosters and even bought a private plane to transport them to the makeshift backwoods arenas that hosted the illicit activity.
and Norman Paul claimed the title of Cockfighting World Champion in 1983. Norman Paul Manziel is Johnny Football's grandpa.
Paul married a Tyler woman named Cindy Boaz in 1987, according to Nevada marriage records. They divorced in 1990, and a year later Paul married Johnny Football's mom, Michelle. Texas A&M's official website describes the pair as "high school sweethearts."
Dorothy Nolan Manziel sold what appears to be the entirety of the family's oil and gas interests to the partnership. The price? $10.