Why do we still care about everything Johnny Manziel does?

The latest news on Johnny Manziel, which has become the sad new normal for him, has nothing to do with football.

Manziel reportedly was kicked out of a Las Vegas club this past weekend after he allegedly punched a man, according to TMZ Sports. This story comes after news that the NFL is looking into the matter of an accident in Vegas in which Manziel was a passenger from a few months back.

The NFL is treating Manziel like a current player even though he isn't currently on a roster and appears spiraling out of control to the rest of us. And yet he's still one of the most heavily-clicked people related to the NFL on the Internet.

Why is that? Is it because people are voyeurs? Do they enjoy watching the Heisman Trophy winner careen off the tracks?

Do others think he still has an NFL future worth salvaging?

What is it about Manziel that has people so interested in every — often sad — move he makes?

Manziel became a celebrity as a freshman at Texas A&M, especially after he beat Alabama. We heard about Manziel's fast lifestyle off the field and we watched his freewheeling approach on it, and they appeared to go hand in hand. Many even talked about Manziel like he was the second coming of Fran Tarkenton combined with Joe Namath — an old-school throwback in more ways than one.

Getting drafted in the first round by the Cleveland Browns only added to the drama. The QB-starved franchise, tired of being so limited at the position for so long, wasn't playing it safe — it was pushing a big pile of chips to the middle and praying for a great draw. Of course, we know that not everyone in the organization was behind making that decision. That often doesn't end well, and this was no exception.

Despite flashes of that Heisman Trophy-winning ability, Manziel never put it together. In fact, his off-field slipups were still happening, frustrating the coaches and fans alike. Following a domestic dispute with his ex-girlfriend Colleen Crowley, Manziel was released by the Browns earlier this spring. The debates about whether his NFL career would go on started right then and haven't let up.

With Manziel, it's always a paradox. We can't say he's a good guy, not after reported multiple incidents involving Crowley, and yet reports indicate that his teammates generally liked him. We can't say that Manziel is a great NFL talent, and yet there have been enough hints here and there to make many believe he could be an effective quarterback if he ever committed himself.

Of course, the whole thing is cloaked by his suspected substance issues. There has been enough evidence — the most damning of which was Manziel's own father saying he feared his son might not make it to age 24 — to suspect that he has some kind of chemical problem that badly needs treating.

But all of this fails to answer the initial question, even as wild and public as his life has become. Why do we care?

Maybe care is the wrong word. Perhaps we should ask, "why do so many people pay attention?" The fascinating thing about a Manziel story on our site (as I suspect it is on other sites) is that the comments, if you dare venture going there, often hit on the theme of: "I don't care!" But those people cared enough to click in the first place and make their opinion known. It's a fascinating conundrum.

Certainly, the media plays a role in this. Players such as Manziel and Tim Tebow, birthed in a very public SEC petri dish, entered the league as celebrities and they remain just as big despite not being in the NFL. The Heisman might not mean quite as much as it once did, but it's still a big deal to many.

But it's way beyond that. We're in an era of deep character examination, especially in the NFL, and every year we gnash our teeth over how much that should play into how much stock teams put into it. By most measures, Tebow has A-plus character and Manziel flunks that category for now. Cam Newton entered the NFL with some serious reservations about him as a man, and he has answered almost every single one of his critics.

Despite Manziel's and Tebow's night-and-day differences off the field, they were also criticized and debated with how they played. Neither have shown enough in that department. If either one showed as much promise as Newton has, for instance, NFL teams would be bending over backward to find room for them on their rosters.

So maybe we care because we fall into one of two camps on Manziel — either we "knew" that Manziel had neither the temperament nor the talent to handle this high-pressure league, or perhaps we still think there's a chance he could get the help he needs to return to form. After all, nowhere do we celebrate the comeback more than in America.

For now, maybe we just keep clicking until we find out which side Manziel falls on. As long as he insists on hanging out in Vegas, it looks like he's going to give us plenty of material.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm