For the first time since December 27, 2015, as the Inquisitr reported, former Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel will set foot on a professional football field as a starting quarterback, when the Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats — the team that signed Manziel earlier this year, but never played him — in a Week Eight CFL East Division showdown that will live stream from Percival Molson Memorial Stadium.
Though he signed a $112,000 contract — considerably above the CFL average $80,000 per year player salary, SEC Country reports — with the Tiger-Cats earlier this year, he never got in a game as the team chose to stick with established starting quarterback Jeremiah Masoli through the Cats’ first five games. Hamilton then made a full commitment to Masoli, a former Oregon Ducks QB who led that team to the 2010 Rose Bowl, as the New York Times recounted.
The Tiger-Cats traded Manziel to divisional rival Montreal on July 22 for a package including two first-round draft picks, ESPN reported. After a week learning the team’s system, Manziel on Friday will take the first step on what he hopes will be his road back to the National Football League.
Manziel was picked in the first round, 22nd overall, by the Cleveland Browns in the 2014 NFL Draft, as the Dallas Morning News recalled in a recent profile of the former Texas A&M sensation known as “Johnny Football.” But due to a series of injuries and, more notably, off-the-field troubles that Manziel later attributed to bipolar disorder and alcoholism, as the New York Post reports, his NFL career crashed and burned after just two tumultuous seasons.
To find out how to watch a live stream of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats vs. Montreal Alouettes Friday night CFL showdown featuring the return of Johnny Manziel, see the streaming information at the bottom of this article. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time at 23,400-seat Percival Molson Memorial Stadium in Montreal, Quebec, on Friday, August 3 — 4:30 p.m. Pacific. Fans in the United Kingdom can log in to the live stream at 12:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 4.
While Manziel was blocked at the Hamilton quarterback position by Masoli, who was on a CFL record tear of nine-straight 300-yard passing games dating back to the 2017 season, the Sporting News reported, he did get into a pair of preseason contests for Hamilton, in which he completed 21 of 31 passes with a touchdown. Manziel also gained 19 yards on the ground, per Sports Illustrated .
Watch Johnny Manziel discuss his upcoming CFL debut, and return to a professional football field, in the video below, courtesy of ESPN.
To watch a live stream of the CFL East Hamilton Tiger-Cats vs. Montreal Alouettes clash, use the stream provided by WatchESPN . Accessing the WatchESPN live stream requires login credentials from a cable or satellite TV provider subscription, however.
To view the Hamilton Tiger-Cats vs. Montreal Alouettes Canadian Football League Johnny Manziel debut live stream for free without a cable subscription, fans can sign up for a free trial of a live TV streaming “over the top” package such as Sling TV , YouTube TV , or DirecTV Now . All three of those “cord-cutter” services require credit card information and subscription fees, but they all offer seven-day free trial periods. If the subscription is canceled prior to the expiration of that free week, fans can watch the Hamilton-Montreal CFL football game streamed live at no charge.
Fans in Canada will need to register for a TSN subscription to watch a live stream of the Hamilton vs. Montreal matchup. In the United Kingdom, the CFL game will live stream via BT Sport . Viewers in other countries outside of Canada, the United States, and U.K. may purchase a live stream of Hamilton Tiger-Cats vs. Montreal Alouettes from the CFL streaming service, which also offers international subscription packages for the 2018 Canadian Football League season.