Man Down

That whooshing you hear is the air coming out of Johnny Football’s career. The hole ripped in that short NFL stay is a self-inflicted wound.

Don’t expect to see Johnny Manziel taking any more snaps for the Cleveland Browns. In less than two years he has become, instead of the face of the franchise, the farce of the franchise.
Johnny likes the night life. It got him in trouble as a rookie and he had to go somewhere for a while to put the problem behind him. But even after promising his coach, Mike Pettine, that there was nothing to worry about as the Browns began their bye week, Manziel headed back to Texas and, shall we say, enjoyed himself thoroughly.

This, after being handed the Browns’ starting job for the final six weeks. This, with the Browns’ next game on Monday night against the beatable Baltimore Ravens. This, after a flop as a rookie and all the early signs of a busted No. 1 draft pick.

Manziel has betrayed his teammates’ trust, his coach’s, the franchise’s and himself. That’s a heavy workload in a bye week. He could have just stayed in Berea, Ohio, at the Browns’ training facility and watched a little more video of himself and others. Instead he wound up in a video, in that sense betrayed by a friend. He could have had a football in his hand – but he was waving a champagne bottle. Now Manziel is the No. 3 quarterback on a team that doesn’t seem to have even one.

Take an immature kid and give him millions and you don’t get a dedicated quarterback. You get an immature kid with millions. That’s what the Browns, 2-8 and first in line for the top pick in the NFL draft next spring, got. Quarterbacks chosen in the first round, like Manziel, are expected to lead the franchise, not sabotage it. Now the Browns start over, which Manziel can’t quite figure out how to do.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .