Chris Jones denies Roughriders worked out Johnny Manziel

It’s a story that had so many people curious; it crashed the website that reported it.

Thursday morning, Justin Dunk of 3 Down Nation published a story stating that the Saskatchewan Roughriders worked out beleaguered former NFL quarterback Johnny Manziel.

That in itself is controversial enough, given Manziel’s history of alcoholism and domestic abuse, but adding to this story is that the Roughriders are not even allowed to speak with Manziel or his people because he is on the negotiating list of the Hamilton Tigercats.

Thursday afternoon Chris Jones, the Riders general manager and vice president of football operations, released a statement flatly denying having contact with Manziel.

“The Saskatchewan Roughriders have not held or attended a workout involving Johnny Manziel,” Jones said in an emailed statement.

“With that, I will not be commenting further on the report,” the release concluded.

However, in an interview on the Green Zone Thursday afternoon, Dunk said he sticks by his report. 

“The report stands for itself. It happened,” he affirmed to Jamie Nye, adding his anonymous sources were solid.

Dunk declined to elaborate on who those sources were, stressing he needed to protect them, but said he had been working on the story for days before it appeared on 3 Down Nation.

“I wanted to make sure — before it was reported — that everything was locked down.”

TSN’s Gary Lawless also reached a spokesperson for Manziel, who also denied the workout happened.

Denise Michaels, spokesperson for Johnny Manziel, tells TSN her client did not work out for @sskroughriders or for any #cfl @cfl team

— gary lawless (@garylawless) February 9, 2017

Before his official statement through the Roughriders, Jones told Lawless he was considering legal action against Dunk and 3 Down Nation for their report on this story.

from @sskroughriders GM Chris Jones on report of working out Manziel: “No one from our club worked him out. We’re considering legal action.”

— gary lawless (@garylawless) February 9, 2017

The editor of 3 Down Nation said he sticks by Dunk’s story “1,000%.”