Who's The Bigger Idiot in Sports This Week: Tony Stewart or Johnny Manziel?

The last few months haven’t been a good time to be an athlete in the public eye. Think about the worst offender by far – Aaron Hernandez, the New England Patriots tight end who is in jail on murder charges. Or consider his college teammate — for the Florida Gators, the mortal enemies of my alma mater, UGA, I might add — Riley Cooper, who uttered racial slurs and went “f—ing nuts” after being denied backstage access at a Kenny Chesney concert and just happened to be caught on tape.

Let’s not forget Alex Rodriguez. It seems the sports media whole world has fixated on the suspension that has stemmed from his alleged use of banned substances – one writer even compared him to the “party guest that won’t leave.” Last but not least, look at poor professional bowler Troy Walker, whose bid for a perfect score ended when he accidentally pressed the reset button before his last frame.

But my friend Britt Johnson posed an interesting question on Facebook today, so I thought I’d bring it to your attention: who’s the bigger idiot in sports this week: Tony Stewart or Johnny Manziel?

On Monday night, Stewart, a three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion broke his leg in two places racing for fun at an Iowa dirt track – his second dirt track crash in as many weeks. He will undergo surgery to repair his leg.

The injury likely will end any hopes of Stewart making this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. With five races remaining before the Chase begins, he is 11th in the point standings, just five points behind 10th-place Greg Biffle. Stewart currently holds one of the two wild card positions due to his one win this season, which came on June 2 at Dover.

Heisman Trophy winner Manziel, who has already generated controversy since his amazing freshman season last year for having meltdowns on Twitter and not taking a summer QB camp seriously enough, is now under investigation for allegedly taking $7,500 to autograph helmets.

An East Coast autograph broker told ESPN on Tuesday that Johnny Manziel was paid $7,500 for signing approximately 300 mini- and full-sized helmets on Jan. 11-12 while he was attending the Walter Camp Football Foundation event.

The broker played two cell phone videos for ESPN showing Manziel signing white Texas A&M helmets and footballs laid out on a bed in a hotel room. The video does not show Manziel accepting any money.

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On the videos, which the broker said were recorded without Manziel’s knowledge, ESPN heard Manziel say “you never did a signing with me” and that if the broker were to tell anyone, he would refuse to deal with him again in the future.

So in your mind, who’s the bigger idiot: Stewart or Manziel? Which athlete has potentially done the most damage to his career? Tell us in the comments section below.