Browns’ Manziel fined $12,000 for giving Redskins bench the finger
August 22, 2014Lookin’ for glove in all the wrong places
August 22, 2014It is officially open season on Johnny Manziel. Go ahead. Take your shots. Shoot your takes. Everyone else is doing it. He’s a petulant child. He is too entitled. His attitude needs to change. He parties too much and values his personal life more than his honing his craft. We’ve heard it all.
By now you know that the Browns lightning rod of a rookie Quarterback lost the latest QB derby to Brian Hoyer, who will take the reins and lead the team into Pittsburgh on September 6. ((I still maintain this was their plan all along.)) Hoyer will play those first three games, most likely start 0-3 or 1-2 and then turn things over to JFF after the Week 4 bye—Week 7, against Jacksonville (and both Steelers games in the rear view mirror) at the latest.
Neither guy has been good. Hoyer was the lesser of two evils and the veteran who Head Coach Mike Pettine clearly has an affinity for. Manziel didn’t do enough on the field, didn’t help himself off the field or allegedly in the locker room, and boom: Johnny Football is now Johnny Clipboard.
That’s when members of the local and national brought up the weaponry.
First it was Northeastern Ohio Media Group’s May Kay Cabot who fired the first salvo. MKC has been on the Browns beat at the Plain Dealer since the 1980’s and has never been known as one to take shots at players or even the team for that matter. But something or someone rattled her cage. Check out the opening paragraph from her piece:
Johnny Manziel began losing the Browns’ starting quarterback job right after the draft when he embarked on his frat-boy partying spree, and he continued losing it right up through the moment he flipped off the Redskins’ bench Monday night.
MKC went on to mention that Manziel “sat alone in the cafeteria on the first day in Berea” which led us to surmise that the guys in that locker room had issues with him before even knowing the man personally.2
Next up we had New York Post NFL Writer and former Browns beat reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal (and fellow Kansas Jayhawk) Bart Hubbuch who took his swing at JFF in a column titled Is Johnny Manziel just Tim Tebow with a better arm and bad attitude? His open read:
This week has made it clear that it isn’t too soon to wonder whether Johnny Football will ever make it in the NFL.
Sorry Johnny, your career already looks like a failure because in your first preseason you have looked sloppy and acted poorly. You know who else looked awful and acted bigger than the game in his first offseason and preseason as an NFL player? Cam Newton. If I told you today that you could have Cam Newton as your Quarterback, would you take him in a heartbeat? Of course you would.
Now I understand that Newton, at 6-5 and 245 lbs. is much more of a physical specimen than Manziel, but the same exact type of columns and whispers were being thrown at him back in 2011. The Panthers had Jimmy Claussen, their second round pick a year earlier out of Notre Dame, ready to go in case Newton wasn’t. Cam’s preseason on the field was ugly. In four appearances, he completed just 42 percent of his passes and looked completely unsure of himself. But he had a bad attitude! He wasn’t well received in his locker room! Major concerns!
Then came Newton’s first two NFL starts where he threw for 422 and 432 yards which kicked off his Rookie of the Year campaign. Most importantly, Newton’s rough preseason as a rookie and the questions about his commitment to the game he was being paid to play were used as motivational tools that not just lit a fire under him, but humbled him as well. If you remember Newton back then, he was as cocky and confident as they came.
Take the infamous 2011 predraft interview that Newton gave to Peter King where he the National Champion and Heisman Trophy winning QB said “I see myself not only as a football player, but an entertainer and icon.” Cam caught all kinds of flack for the statement both with players and the media. As King put it in a piece about Newton’s maturation process earlier this month “Newton thought it was a cheap shot for me to report it” and then didn’t speak to him for more than three years. With King at Panthers camp a few weeks ago, Newton approached him and asked for a couple of minutes of his time.
He got right to the point. He said most of the people close to him wanted him to never speak to me again. Ignore me. I was one of the haters, so don’t deal with me; just deal with the media who were either fair—in their minds—or consistently supportive. “But I am my own person,” he said. “I think for myself. I make my own decisions. I decided I wanted to talk to you to see if we could work this out. I don’t want to walk the other way every time I see you. That’s not what a man does.”
King went on.
Newton looked me straight in the eye and spoke earnestly, with passion. He told me he had some in his support group wanting him to—and this is my word, not his, because I can’t quote exactly what he said—be a brand, a great quarterback with a great image off the field as a multifaceted person. I understood totally. What marketing person or PR person working for a first-round quarterback doesn’t use Peyton Manning as a model? On one hand, Newton said what he said, and I reported it. But in the end, I feel bad that he was branded with those comments because his three years as a player has proven him to be, after some missteps at post-game podiums following losses, a good person and leader.
Newton has grown both on and off the field and led his team to the playoffs a year ago. Why can’t Manziel do the same eventually? Some people mature more slowly than others. I honestly believe that while the Browns want Manziel to ultimately be “the guy,” they see his inability to win this job as a good thing. If anyone needs humbling, its Johnny Football. I believe he came to Cleveland thinking this would be a cake walk for him. All he had to do was beat a career backup who has been cut multiple times and was coming off of a torn ACL. Pettine has admired Hoyer from a far and appreciates his work ethic up close. So now Johnny is number two.
And you know who is always the most popular guy in town don’t you? The backup quarterback.
The question to me is not Manziel’s talent, it is whether or not he has it in him to turn all of the negativity surrounding him and use it to his advantage. I can’t say that I like what I heard and the body language I saw in his first meeting with the media after Hoyer was named the starter.
“I didn’t necessarily feel like I was ready, and I felt like there were steps that I needed to take and I need to take to move forward and get better,” Manziel said. “I wouldn’t say it necessarily lights a fire. It’s disappointing. Obviously I didn’t want this to be the outcome. Down the road as the weeks continue to go on, I’ll get better, so does it light a fire? I don’t really know if it does or not.”
Eek.
“Next time I come into training camp I won’t be surprised by it,” he said. “Next time I come into OTAs, I won’t be surprised by it. But I wouldn’t go back from the point after the draft to now and change a single thing. I’m going to continue to live my life and the offseason is the offseason. I’m going to travel places, I’m going to go places, I’m going to do things and that’s going to have no effect.”
Make it stop. I am trying to defend you here Johnny! Only time will tell how this will play out, but I for one am not ready to just throw in the towel and jump ship. In the immediacy of today’s Twitter-fueled world, we want to judge everyone instantly. Can we just hold off on that this one time?3
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It is officially open season on Johnny Manziel. Go ahead. Take your shots. Shoot your takes. Everyone else is doing it. He’s a petulant child. He is too entitled. His attitude needs to change. He parties too much and values his personal life more than his honing his craft. We’ve heard it all.
By now you know that the Browns lightning rod of a rookie Quarterback lost the latest QB derby to Brian Hoyer, who will take the reins and lead the team into Pittsburgh on September 6. ((I still maintain this was their plan all along. [↩]
- While the PD article seemed harsh, I can’t say that I disagreed with the sentiment. [↩]
- If Brian Hoyer was from San Diego instead of Cleveland, would people be on his side the way they are? Nope. We would all be clamoring to see Manziel right away. [↩]
64 Comments
I’m actually ok with either of those options over Manziel.
Well it’s more likely than 3-0 or 2-1, no?
we once beat NO with a 2 DL TDs and a long punter run. anything is possible!!!
(screw likeliness, it’s August 😉 )
So I say let’s combine the two and hope they annihilate one another.
Or we can harness it to power our warp core.
I would love to see a press conference where these writers have to answer for their work.
“You stated that if Johnny didn’t spend so much time partying and more time on the playbook he would be fine. You seem to be jumping to conclusions. How much partying did he do, and what evidence do you have? How much time WAS he spending on the playbook? Please provide estimates on how much time he should be spending in these areas, and your reasoning and evidence as to why this would bring success.”
“In your article from Coach Pettine’s press conference, you quoted him as saying, “Johnny has done everything we’re asked him to do.” Did coach actually say “we’re”? That doesn’t make sense. Are you purposely portraying him as having a poor vocabulary, or do you have a poor vocabulary? One last follow up, if you have a poor vocabulary, why should we reading anything you write?”
“Do you think if you spent less time on Mike & Mike, you would have a better grasp of the english language, or maybe sportswriting in general?”
“Why do most updates come from outside media sources like Adam Schefter & Mort? What exactly is your value in being assigned exclusively to the Browns?”
I’m sure if MKC has kids, they would all describe her as the Jason Campbell of beat writers. And by that, I obviously mean elite.
This ^ + 1 MILLION
(Is that still a thing that’s done on the internet?)
Never cross the streams.
FIRST!
http://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/ghostbusters.gif
Nothing compared to when she wrote that Jason Campell was an elite quarterback.
That was the ultimate.
Bravo
try this: Sunday morning PD headline to game story is “JOHNNY NARROWS GAP WITH HOYER.” And the story content contains not a word, not a quote or even MKC amateur analysis, to imply that.
What headline should state is “PD WANTS TO WRITE ABOUT JOHNNY ALL THE TIME.”