The Curse of Paul Warfield — A loving look at a 45-year slump: Reliving Yesteryear
August 21, 2014Anthony Bennett isn’t being traded to Philadelphia after all
August 21, 2014
In what is bound to be the most blown-out-of-context quote of the week, Cleveland Browns head coach Mike Pettine stated that he envisions a scenario where Johnny Manziel does not take a live snap during the entire 2014 season. Take a look for yourself (emphasis mine).
“Give me a crystal ball and I’ll give you that answer,” Pettine said. “The season is so long. So much can happen, and we don’t want … Brian looking over his shoulder thinking, ‘Hey, I make one bad throw and I’m out.’ But over time, if you feel you need to make a change — it’s not just at quarterback, it’ll be at other positions as well. You have guys that you have penciled in that you hope can be that guy for you for the year, but that rarely works out in the league. Time will only tell.
“You could see a scenario where he doesn’t play this year, and then there are other scenarios that are absolutely possible as well. It’s hard to tell.”
Which then leads to this:
Realistically, there are two scenarios in Pettines range that would keep the No. 22 pick in the 2014 NFL Draft on the sidelines holding a Microsoft Surface for all 16 games, both of them bordering on extremes: 1) A flawless effort from Brian Hoyer and the Browns’ offense or 2) a season-ending injury suffered by Manziel during a practice session. The scenario where Hoyer keeps his job out of merit would include the Browns avoiding an 0-3 start—a tough task given the gauntlet of Pittsburgh, New Orleans and Baltimore during the first three weeks leading into the team’s bye. Even following the bye, the Browns go on the road to Tennessee before hosting the Steelers where they could conceivably be staring at an 0-5 start.
The latter scenario, the one which would have to be considered more likely given the way the team has played through the first two weeks of the preseason, would be devastating from a media and hype standpoint, and would certainly not guarantee anything in the way of wins—but it would keep the one they call Johnny Football off the field.
Every head coach, if placed in an ideal scenario where grapes are fed to you and the media doesn’t exist, would love to have a rookie quarterback take mental reps for 16 games. Unfortunately for Pettine, his rookie quarterback has catapulted over Tim Tebow on the list of global headline (and Google search) infatuations.
The quote Pettine gave will likely be cut and streamed across the bottom of televisions across the country as everyone outside of Cleveland is in a hurry to see what the Heisman Trophy winner can do at the next level. When one looks at it from Cleveland’s point of view, however—the one where said Heisman Winner still can’t call every play in the playbook—things become a lot more obvious. Grantland’s Andrew Sharp may have put it best in his latest Triangle submission, stating “LeBron is in Cleveland, the Browns aren’t being idiots, and the world is upside down. It’s crazy enough already. Now we just gotta wait for that Jags game.”
—
(Photo: Scott Sargent/WFNY)
31 Comments
OMG, WHY DOES PETTINE HATE JOHNNY???? WE’RE NOT GOING TO BE “RELEVANT” ANY MORE!!!!!
Sheesh.
this would mean hoyer is healthy, doing a good job, and winning.
what exactly is the problem with the quote or this outcome?
That’s exactly how I looked at it.
so we are now grasping for something to write about that we take a sentence out of an interview from a day ago to make a story..pretty sad! The media who has loved and hated on Johnny for the last two years is going to find out what happens when all the over reporting and hype, hand wringing and made up controversy killed their golden goose…or at least sent him to the bench. Not too many stories in the NFL about the backup QB walking the sideline.
For the Browns…they might to be careful for what they wish for with the move of JM to the bench because I am not sure that many people really care what is happening with the Browns or with HoHum Hoyer….as the Browns fade into the background.
I guess the good news for this year is that they sold alot of tickets and sports apparel with #2 on it. Though they might want to stop hyping tickets sales by asking if people want to see JM play….seems a little dishonest or did the Browns forget to tell the ticket office that JM is benched.
We’re Cleveland; there always has to be something wrong.
even when our dreams come true, we know it’s only temporary
http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp358/utopuluxe/something_wicked_this_way_comes.gif
“Nobody has any idea whether Manziel will be good, obviously, but at least the Browns are giving him the best shot to succeed. That’s the most amazing part of all this; the team (and city) that always gets things wrong has been playing this perfectly the whole time.”
-Andrew Sharp
This is new.
JOHNNY MUSTA SHOWED UP FOR DAT MEETING REALLY REALLY LATE. AND DRUNK.
“A flawless effort from Brian Hoyer and the Browns’ offense..”
Really? One bad Hoyer game, let’s say a 1 TD, 2 interception loss, and the Johnny era begins? Not sure about that at all. Once they install Johnny because Hoyer’s ineffective it might be hard to switch back, even if Manziel isn’t ready. Pettine and Shanahan have their reps on the line and they’ll want to go with the best bet to win games. Haslam cannot fire 3 coaches in 3 consecutive years, and this is the year Pettine might be able to assert his will. I don’t buy that Johnny’s in after any hiccup just because you media guys ache for that story.
I’m not sure I understand where you’re coming from. The point of this post is to rail against those twisting Pettine’s words into some anti-Manziel slant. I may have overstated Scenario 1, but the only way Johnny doesn’t see the field is if the Browns win football games. Not the first hiccup, but prolonged 1 TD, 2 INT losses will surely result in the rookie getting playing time. I couldn’t care less about the storylines, but certainly won’t speak for the other “you media guys.”
This movie is still spooky.
You way overstated your scenario 1. That’s where I’m coming from. Pettine has more leeway (should he choose to exercise it) and keep Manziel on the sideline now than he ever will. You said Hoyer has to be flawless, has no margin of error. I disagreed. I could be wrong.
Congrats on being some of the “you media guys”, Scott?
I am so tired of the manufactured debate over this. For example, this morning I heard on some national talk radio show how the “story” broke in Cleveland that Johnny Manziel began losing the starting job right after the draft and through the middle finger incident. This, of course, was a reference to an editorial piece from the PD(? – MKC?), and not any actual story that broke. Yet, it has become the story, even though it’s not the story – or any actual story – at all.
Everyone that was so invested in JFF starting at QB for the Browns is now twisting in all sorts of weird mental and verbal gynmnastics to explain how “the Browns did the right thing, but they went about it the wrong way” (now the go-to media position from what I can glean from print, to radio, to ESPN, to the NFL network). The thing is, apart from simply naming JFF the starter from Day 1, the narrative was always going to be that the Browns “did it the wrong way.” They really can’t win in this situation, and I hope they ignore the noise.
Thanks, Jason. Do I get a certificate?
Me at work and then coming across another Johnny non-story, story.
The Cavs season can’t start soon enough.
We could conceivably go 5-0 too. Or we could 0-3 with Hoyer playing well. Why does Pettine get raked over the coals for pointing out that stuff happens and nobody can predict the future? Manziel, that’s why.
I’m actually sort of annoyed with how Pettine handled this all. I think he (and the front office in general) really underestimated Manziel Mania and the investment the national media has in seeing him start. They should have named Hoyer starter day one.
as is pretty much anything Ray Bradbury wrote. his short stories are crazy dark and still can give me the chills. it’s funny that the above movie was made by Disney and somehow received a PG rating.
We are the hungry ones. Your torments call us like dogs in the night. And we do feed, and feed well.
well, you see, MKC thinks that Johnny betrayed her and went back to his dastardly ways as she saw him floating away on a boat (presumably with the crown). little did she know that she was actually being betrayed by her own mother and that Johnny was tied up on that boat by henchmen. so, you have to forgive her the outpouring of grief she showed in that column.
http://static.tumblr.com/gtwfl9w/Ymylgzn6f/tangled_gif.gif
But what if they honestly didn’t know or think that Hoyer was better than Manziel? What if they honestly wanted to have the two guys compete to win the job? Is Hoyer really all that impressive to you? Seriously, there is no way that the Browns coaches could win in this instance. If they had named Hoyer starter on day 1, the narrative still would have been that they handled it wrongly.
Yes, Hoyer was impressive enough to me to make him the starter over Manziel or any other rookie.
I concede your points. And yeah – lose, lose.
No way to prove it, but I do think that the coaching staff were 90% sure Hoyer was the guy. None of this noise means anything of course, but it still annoyed me. Wish Pettine would of could of told the national media to stuff it.
And the headline at the PD: Pettine wants Hoyer watching out for Manziel.
http://i466.photobucket.com/albums/rr26/amanitaplaync/Picard_Facepalm_lo_zpsa35bf039.jpg
He missed the call.
The battery was dead on his money phone!
http://i.imgur.com/f6due.gif
See, I think they did. From the very start, they refused to do what the national media kept saying they should – which is why they now get the “stupid Cleveland rubes” treatment.
MKCs appearances at the start of camp on national outlets like the NFL Network where she breathlessly espoused Manziels virtues while telling anyone who would listen she thought Johnny would be the week 1 starter did a lot to stoke that rube meme as well
Don’t worry, at the end he’ll sacrifice himself to save hers and she’ll save him in return
http://www.certificates4teachers.com/images/language16.gif