Contemplate heretofore, lest you appear a doofus.

Yeah, that title up there is my own little proverb I made up myself. You’re welcome.

I was listening to ESPN Radio this morning and they were discussing Johnny Manziel, last year’s Heisman Trophy winner and college football’s most recent assclown prima donna toolbag. If you’re unaware, Manziel was caught up in some off the field bullshit where he was signing hundreds of autographs for a dealer who was obviously going to sell them. He was investigated by the NCAA but nothing could be proven so he was suspended for the first half of the first game. Severe punishment it was not.

Anyway, after entering the game he generally acted like a dumbass, taunting and gesturing towards the other team, the normal stuff jackasses do. He got a penalty for it, and as he was leaving the field his coach tried to talk to him. Manziel brushed right by him, went to the bench and sulked.

I tell you all that to get to this. The guys discussing Manziel today were later interviewing Miami quarterback Ryan Tannehill and they asked him what he thought of the guy. His answer?

“Hey, he’s just being who he is. You have to be true to yourself.”

What the hell? I hear this constantly these days. “Hey, that’s who I am. That’s me. I can’t pretend to be something I’m not.” I rank this line of thinking right up there with, “Just keeping it real, man. I’m just being me.”

Well, I have a question for people who say this. What if who you are is a monumental jackass?

Everyone feels like saying or doing inappropriate things from time-to-time, but that doesn’t mean we follow up on it. For God’s sake, if I let everything that crossed my mind come flying out of my mouth I wouldn’t have a friend in the world and would have never held a job for more than a few hours.

Isn’t it more honorable to simply hold it in and try to be a better person?

We all feel like telling someone off or pointing the finger at somebody after we’ve bested them, especially if they’d treated us poorly somewhere along the way. But part of being a good person is not saying what you’re thinking, not doing what you feel like doing. Don’t we lower ourselves to their level when we act exactly the same way they do? How does that make us better?

In addition, I’ve been with women who are extremely proud of being a bitch and will tell you so. “Hey, I’m a bitch. I’m proud of it.” My only response to that is, “Why?”

I’m not sure how this attitude developed, but it’s a fairly recent one. People my age could never imagine their mother saying, “Yep. I’m proud to be a bitch” or their father saying, “Hey, I’ll tell you exactly how I feel. Gotta be who I am and that’s a prick.”

Maybe, just maybe, it’s sometimes better to stop yourself, hold it in, keep your mouth shut, and move on.

So please. Don’t wear the fact that you’re outspoken and do stupid things as a badge of honor. Honesty is a good thing. That said, it has its limits. Like I said, sometimes it’s better to not be yourself, to actually pretend to be something else.

You know, something better.