KERRVILLE, TX – Six months after a Matt Bonner buzz gets a 12-year-old Spurs fan sent home from his San Antonio middle school, a football fan in Kerrville is upping the ante.
Seventeen-year-old Christian Chavez got hometown hero Johnny Manziel’s likeness shaved into his hair and also faced repercussions at school.
"Everyone's just taking pictures of it,” Chavez says about Manziel’s face shaven onto the back of his head.
Chavez and Manziel are actually former classmates at Tivy High School.
"My sophomore year he was a senior,” Chavez says.
It’s almost like the haircut was ripped from the headlines of the Kerrville Daily Times: front page, Johnny Manziel – then, Tivy’s star quarterback. Other side, there’s Chavez making plays.
Chavez saw a Facebook ad about Johnny Football haircuts by San Antonio south side barber Roberto Ferrel.
“I'm known as Rob The Original,” he says.
Ferrel calls hair homages cutting edge.
"It's artwork and artwork is popular anywhere – on walls, on heads,” he says. “Chavez wanted Johnny on the back of his head and then we thought about getting the Texas A&M logo on the side and the name on the other."
Chavez loved the haircut, but Kerrville ISD forbids distracting hairstyles.
Granted, Chavez’s new school, Hill Country High School, is punting distance from Manziel’s old stomping grounds.
Still, rules are rules, the principal said.
"Later on he winds up saying I can stay but I just go upstairs in an isolated room where I'm not distracting anyone,” Chavez says.
The district let Chavez keep the haircut but he did have to rinse out the maroon hair dye before coming back to school Friday morning.
A district spokeswoman says they do appreciate his enthusiasm for Johnny Football.
"I'm cool with it because you can still see it and all,” Chavez says about his now all-black hairstyle.
Chavez hopes his old buddy, now a Heisman hopeful, approves of the hairdo.
