BEREA: I hope the Browns aren’t searching for a head coach who can salvage Johnny Manziel.
I hope owner Jimmy Haslam’s infatuation with “Johnny Football” ended on Sunday, when the second-year quarterback failed to show up for a morning treatment in Berea required of those in the NFL’s concussion protocol. Instead, USA Today reported he was in Las Vegas on Saturday, dining and gambling at Planet Hollywood.
I hope the fact that Manziel didn’t want to be with his teammates for the season-ending game was the last straw for the Browns front office.
With growing confirmation that the story is true, it should be the final, selfish act in Cleveland for a 23-year-old who still seems more concerned with celebrity than football. Even if he did reportedly ask the blackjack dealer to call him “John.”
ESPN LasVegas reported Monday night that Manziel was spotted at a popular nightclub on the Strip Saturday, entering wearing a blond wig, fake mustache, glasses and a hoodie. According to the radio station, he introduced himself as “Billy,” and his party was seated in a dark area. Before leaving at 3 a.m., he asked to have his bill comped because he didn’t have cash and didn’t want to put it on his credit card, but that request was denied. The station reported Manziel also ate at the club with the wig and glasses on.
The story crashed the ESPN Las Vegas web site and forced the station to post the story on Facebook.
The Browns need to cut ties with Manziel as soon as possible.
A more stable organization might be able to wait and see if Manziel can conquer his demons. But he spent 10 weeks in a rehab facility during the last offseason and from all appearances has been backsliding at an alarming rate in recent weeks. Former coach Mike Pettine said Manziel’s issues are more deep-rooted than the Browns thought when they selected him with the 22nd overall pick in 2014. Yet on Sunday, Pettine denied a WKNR (850-AM) radio report that Manziel showed up for work on Tuesday “inebriated and disheveled,” saying, “No. No. No, that is not the case.”
Hiring their sixth coach in eight years, the Browns are dysfunctional enough without a new coach having to worry whether Manziel is out and about drinking champagne or Four Loko, a malt beverage that contains 12 percent alcohol.
There might not be anyone willing to give up a seventh-round draft pick for him in trade. According to spotrac.com, it will cost the Browns a $4.87 million salary cap hit to release him. But it shouldn’t matter what it costs. Manziel is a cancer, the last person they want to be the face of the Browns with his never-ending party pictures on Instagram.
I doubt the Browns have the nerve to cut Manziel now. By quarterback standards, his four-year, $8.2 million contract is relatively cheap. He’ll probably be around at least until the April 28-30 draft, when he could be thrown into a trade to move up. The Browns hold the second and 32nd overall picks.
Perhaps Manziel’s trip to Las Vegas was his twisted way of orchestrating his way out of Cleveland, with the hope of landing in Dallas. That part of it will bother me if it works.
But he needed to go long before this. Peter King wrote in his “Monday Morning Quarterback” on si.com that the Browns are “so done with Manziel.” King said he would bet that at least 25 teams in the league wouldn’t pick up Manziel off waivers right now. The Browns should finally share that disdain.
Manziel did report to Berea on Monday morning for a team meeting with Haslam and new executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown, teammates Joel Bitonio and Danny Shelton said.
Bitonio, the second-year left guard whose locker is near Manziel’s, said he talked to him, but not about the weekend. Bitonio hopes the new regime will give Manziel a “fresh start.”
“Maybe he’ll come back and he’s like, ‘Man, they’re giving me another chance with this new coach, new executive people,’ and maybe he’ll come out of it ready and willing to work. I saw signs this year, in the facility at least, of him improving and him wanting to be better,” Bitonio said. “We saw his ability to play, and if they give him another chance and he’s ready to work, I think [the players are] ready to keep giving him a chance.”
I can’t believe veterans who have repeatedly defended Manziel share that feeling. Nine-time Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Thomas said in regards to Manziel on Sunday, “I just want to know that the Cleveland Browns are the most important thing in that person’s life.”
Rookie defensive tackle Danny Shelton also provided a counterpoint, although he probably didn’t mean to sound as harsh as he did.
“He’s his own man, really. You can’t really tell him what to do,” Shelton said of the Las Vegas story. “I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I just continue to do my thing, that’s all I can do.”
The Browns should realize they’ve done all they can, given Manziel too many second chances already. Haslam must finally accept the truth, that Manziel’s off-the-field antics aren’t worth the continuing negativity the Browns are more than capable of creating without him.