Editor’s note: The following are key dates in Johnny Manziel’s career with Browns.
2014
May 8: The Browns trade up four spots in the first round to select Johnny Manziel, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback from Texas A&M University, 22nd overall. Browns fans celebrate and Manziel flashes his signature “money sign” hand gesture as he walks onto the stage at Radio City Music Hall in New York. ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio reports owner Jimmy Haslam told him he became convinced Browns fans wanted Manziel when a homeless man spotted him on the street shortly before the draft and ordered, “Draft Manziel.” The Minnesota Vikings choose quarterback Teddy Bridgewater at No. 32, and the Oakland Raiders take quarterback Derek Carr at No. 36.
May 9: Manziel celebrates the draft by partying in the wee hours with champagne and celebrity friends at a New York nightclub. He laughs off questions about the partying later the same day during his introductory news conference at team headquarters in Berea. “I’m 21 years old,’’ he says.
May 15: Former Browns quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains reveals during an interview with an Arkansas radio station that Manziel texted him a week earlier during the NFL Draft and urged the franchise to pick him. Loggains says the text read, “Hurry up and draft me because I want to be there. I want to wreck this league together.” Loggains says he forwarded the text to Haslam and ex-Browns coach Mike Pettine, whereupon Haslam said, “Pull the trigger. We’re trading up to go get this guy.” Haslam and former Browns General Manager Ray Farmer later deny Loggains’ story. Farmer insists he made the pick, not Haslam.
May 24-25: With the Browns taking a break from organized team activities, Manziel spends Memorial Day weekend partying in Las Vegas, and it’s chronicled on social media. He attends a UFC fight, mingles poolside with New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, DJ Pauly D of MTV’s Jersey Shore and bikini-clad women. He’s also caught on camera spraying champagne into a sea of dancers at a nightclub.
May 28: Manziel defends his Vegas vacation while addressing the media in Berea. “I don’t live my life according to you guys or according to what other people think of me,” he says. “I’m going to live my life to the fullest. ... If I want to go out and have some fun and it doesn’t hinder what my main goals in life are, then I don’t really care what anybody has to say.” Pettine says he doesn’t have any qualms about Manziel’s trip.
May 30: Manziel fulfills his promise to keep living his life by rendezvousing with friend and rapper Drake at a nightclub in Los Angeles.
June 6: Manziel is photographed drinking from a bottle of champagne while floating in a pool atop an inflatable swan at a bar in Austin, Texas.
June 7: Manziel is picked by the San Diego Padres in the 28th round (837th overall) of the Major League Baseball draft. He hasn’t played baseball since he was a junior at Tivy High School in Kerrville, Texas.
June 15: A video surfaces on Instagram in which Manziel holds a stack of money to his ear and pretends it’s a phone. “I can’t hear,” Manziel says. “There’s too much money in my [bleeping] hand. I can’t hear a thing.”
June 27: Manziel defends his off-field behavior during an interview at the NFL Rookie Symposium in Berea. “I’m not going to change who I am for anybody,” he says. “... Am I going to live in a shell or am I just going to hide from everybody and not do anything? I don’t think that’s the way I should live my life, and I’m not going to do it.”
July 6: A photograph surfaces online showing Manziel tightly rolling a dollar bill in the bathroom of a bar. The Browns are startled by the photo and privately discuss their concern.
July 27: Haslam expresses disappointment in Manziel’s off-field antics after the first full-squad practice of training camp. “We expect better from him,” Haslam says.
Aug. 11: Manziel is late to a team meeting. Later that week, he tells reporters he was tardy because he “misread the schedule.”
Aug. 18: Manziel loses his cool when Redskins opponents taunt him during a preseason game and directs a middle-finger salute at Washington’s bench. The NFL later fines him $12,000.
Aug. 20: Pettine names Brian Hoyer the Week 1 starting quarterback instead of Manziel.
Nov. 22: Manziel and his friends brawl with a group of Browns fans about 2:25 a.m. outside an elevator in the Metropolitan at the 9, a downtown Cleveland hot spot where Manziel used to live. Farmer releases a prepared statement saying “the time of the incident is concerning” to the Browns, who flew to Atlanta the afternoon of the skirmish and played the Falcons the next day. One of the fans involved later publicly apologizes to Manziel for the fight. No charges are filed.
Nov. 30: Manziel fills in for Hoyer in the fourth quarter of a 26-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills and runs for a 10-yard touchdown. But Hoyer returns to the starting lineup for the next game.
Dec. 14: Manziel starts his first NFL regular-season game after receiving the nod over a slumping Hoyer. Manziel and the Browns are humiliated in a 30-0 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Dec. 21: Manziel gets off to a rocky start against the Carolina Panthers and leaves the 17-13 loss with a hamstring injury late in the first half.
Dec. 23: The Browns rule out Manziel for the season finale, and he tells reporters it wouldn’t be fair for the team to give up on him with a sample size of just seven quarters. “This is a job for me now, and I have to take it a lot more seriously than maybe I did at the first,” he says.
Dec. 27: Manziel is fined on the eve of the season finale because he overslept when he was supposed to be at team headquarters for treatment on his injured hamstring. Browns security reportedly tries to rouse Manziel at his downtown Cleveland apartment because the team couldn’t reach him by phone.
Dec. 29: Manziel tells reporters he failed to show up for treatment Dec. 27 because he partied with friends too late the night of Dec. 26. He says he can only prove he’ll change with actions, not words. “It’s about being accountable and doing what I’m going to say instead of looking like a jackass,” he says.
Dec. 30: Manziel appears in an Instagram video posted on Twitter at 12:35 a.m. wishing business partner LeBron James a happy birthday with friends at a nightclub in Miami Beach, Fla.
2015
Jan. 10: Manziel parties with friends in Aspen, Colo., and is joined at some point by suspended Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon.
Jan. 28: Manziel checks into Caron Treatment Centers, a nonprofit provider of alcohol and drug addiction treatment.
April 11: News of Manziel being discharged from Caron breaks. He spends more than 10 weeks in the inpatient rehabilitation facility in Pennsylvania. Manziel later moves from downtown Cleveland to a suburban golf course community west of the city.
May 30: Manziel throws a water bottle at a trash-talking fan hounding him for an autograph, according to police in Irving, Texas, where Manziel attended a golf tournament with friends. The bottle misses the fan, and no charges are filed.
June 17: Manziel addresses the media for the first time since he left rehab. He admits his Johnny Football persona became overwhelming, and he vows to ditch the “money sign.”
Aug. 23: Tendinitis flares up in Manziel’s throwing elbow and shuts him down for the final two preseason games. Manziel reveals it has bothered him off and on since his freshman year at Texas A&M.
Sept. 13: Quarterback Josh McCown starts the regular-season opener against the New York Jets but suffers a concussion during the offense’s first drive. Manziel fills in and struggles in a 31-10 loss.
Sept. 20: Manziel earns his first win as an NFL starter by throwing touchdown passes of 50 and 60 yards to wide receiver Travis Benjamin in a 28-14 triumph over the Tennessee Titans. Still, Manziel returns to the bench with McCown cleared to play in the next game.
Oct. 12: Manziel is questioned roadside by Avon police after an in-car fight with then-girlfriend Colleen Crowley. Crowley accuses Manziel of hitting her, which he denies, and Manziel tells police the couple had been drinking earlier in the day. No charges are filed. The NFL investigates the incident under its personal conduct policy.
Oct. 18: Manziel’s high school offensive coordinator Julius Scott, who lived with Manziel for a few months after he was released from rehab, tells USA Today he’s surprised to hear Manziel is drinking again. “If he asked me if I thought drinking was a good idea, I would say absolutely not,” Scott says. “You’d have to have your head examined if you said, ‘It’s OK to go have a couple.’ ”
Nov. 5: Manziel re-enters the starting lineup as McCown sits out with broken ribs. He plays well in the first half before being neutralized by the Bengals’ defense during the second half of a 31-10 loss.
Nov. 7: Manziel serves as an honorary captain during a Texas A&M game and later poses for photographs with fellow partygoers at his old stomping grounds. “Took a lot of pictures with a lot of people, and I think I made a lot of people happy,” he says. “So I can’t really control who does what with those and what people say about them.”
Nov. 15: With McCown still sidelined, Manziel starts against the Pittsburgh Steelers and throws for a career-high 372 yards in a 30-9 loss.
Nov. 17: Pettine names Manziel the starter for the rest of the season, and the NFL announces it won’t discipline him for his Oct. 12 in-car fight with Crowley. Pettine reveals he has talked to Manziel about his off-field conduct, and Manziel responds by vowing to be on his best behavior during an upcoming bye-week break. “I let [Pettine] know that I’m not going to do anything that’s going to be a distraction to this team or be an embarrassment to the organization,” Manziel says.
Nov. 23: A video showing Manziel holding a large bottle while singing and dancing at an Austin nightclub surfaces online. During a community event the same day, Manziel tries to pass off the footage as old when questioned about it by the Beacon Journal.
Nov. 24: Pettine demotes Manziel from starter to third string not just because he partied during the bye-week break, but more so because he lied to the Browns about his shenanigans and thus violated the trust of the coaching staff.
Nov. 30: McCown starts against the Baltimore Ravens but suffers a season-ending broken collarbone and is replaced by Austin Davis in the fourth quarter of a 33-27 loss. Davis starts the following week in a 37-3 defeat against the Bengals.
Dec. 8: Pettine names Manziel the starter again and says he intends to start him in the final four games of the season. Manziel’s demotion for partying and lying to the Browns lasted two games.
Dec. 13: Manziel excels in his first start since the demotion and helps the Browns earn a 24-10 win over the San Francisco 49ers.
Dec. 20: Manziel has a decent outing in a 30-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
Dec. 27: Manziel rushes for 108 yards, a franchise record for a quarterback, but struggles as a passer in a 17-13 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. The same weekend, a video of Manziel rapping and holding a can of what appears to be Four Loko, a malt beverage that contains 12 percent alcohol by volume, appears online. Pettine calls the video “a concern” and says he’ll talk to Manziel about it.
Dec. 30: The Browns announce Manziel arrived at team headquarters in the morning complaining of concussion-like symptoms. He’s diagnosed with a concussion by team doctors later the same day.
Dec. 31: Pettine rules out Manziel for the Jan. 3 season finale against the Steelers. He also reveals members of the organization want Manziel to get his personal problems addressed again in the offseason.
2016
Jan. 2: USA Today reports Manziel was seen gambling and dining in Las Vegas the night before the season finale. Manziel attempts to cast doubt on the report by posting a photograph of himself and his dog on Instagram with a location tag of Avon, Ohio. It’s later reported that North Olmsted police cited him for driving with expired license plates that morning.
Jan. 3: Manziel does not attend the season finale at FirstEnergy Stadium. Haslam says the Browns don’t know Manziel’s whereabouts, revealing he did not report to team headquarters in the morning for scheduled treatment the organization requires of players in the NFL’s concussion protocol. The Browns fine Manziel as a result.
Jan. 4: Manziel reports to team headquarters, where Haslam and new executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown address the team in the aftermath of Pettine and Farmer being fired. ESPN Las Vegas reports Manziel attempted to disguise himself with a blond wig, fake mustache, glasses and a hoodie while partying at a Vegas nightclub the night of Jan. 2. The report says he used the pseudonym “Billy.”
Jan. 6: LeBron James’ LRMR marketing agency lets it be known its business relationship with Manziel has ended.
Jan. 13: The Browns hire coach Hue Jackson. During a series of radio interviews in the subsequent days, he repeatedly speaks as if the Browns will sever ties from Manziel in the offseason.
Jan. 28: Haslam is noncommittal about Manziel’s future at the Greater Cleveland Sports Awards. He also says he thinks the team’s relationship with Manziel can be fixed.
Jan. 30: Police in Fort Worth, Texas, respond to a phone call about an altercation between Manziel and his ex-girlfriend and later issue a news release about the incident. Manziel is not at the scene when police arrive, but they talk to the ex-girlfriend and determine a “possible assault” took place in that jurisdiction or multiple jurisdictions, including some belonging to Dallas police. The ex-girlfriend says she’s concerned about Manziel’s “well-being,” so police call him, check locations on the ground and search for him with a helicopter. They later determine he’s safe and in no danger. The Fort Worth and Dallas police announce they’re investigating to determine if a criminal offense occurred. An NFL spokesman says the league will investigate the incident under its personal conduct policy.
Feb. 2: Brown, who has control of the 53-man roster, makes it clear in a statement the Browns will dump Manziel. “We’ve been clear about expectations for our players on and off the field,” Brown says. “Johnny’s continual involvement in incidents that run counter to those expectations undermines the hard work of his teammates and the reputation of our organization. His status with our team will be addressed when permitted by league rules.” The Browns are expected to part with Manziel on March 9, when they’ll have the salary-cap space needed to execute the move with the start of the new league year.
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.