For 99 percent of football players, a photograph of them being in a nightclub during the bye week would not be considered a major story. Unfortunately for Johnny Manziel, he is not 99 percent of football players. Manziel famously entered rehab earlier this year, and of course he has a certain reputation when it comes to his nightlife, so photos and videos that made the rounds this week of him popping up in an Austin club are going to make headlines.
Despite the fact that TMZ reported that Manziel was “not doing anything crazy” at the club, even the fact that he was there has apparently upset Browns’ head coach Mike Pettine so much, that he’s now not sure if Manziel will start the Browns game next Monday night against the Ravens, via ESPN.
“I want to sit down and discuss it before I knee jerk and kind of go off on a potential tangent with it,” Pettine said, while also acknowledging: “It’s a little easier to handle when it’s just a one-time occurrence, but when behavior repeats, not just him but with anybody, it’s certainly a cause for concern.”
“You have a vision of what you want the team to look like, how you want them to handle themselves when they’re out of the building. We talk a lot about it … so when things like this happen — and not just him, but just in general — any team when you have incidents like that [where] a guy knows that he represents more than himself and has issues off the field, it is frustrating,” Pettine said.
However, when asked about the video, which featured him holding a bottling of champagne, Manziel had an interesting defense, saying that videos “can be old,” via Cleveland.com.
“You know there’s all kinds of people that come out,” he said. “Videos can be old. Videos can be all kinds of different things. So like I said, I’m not in a state to be able to speak on it because my focus has been on this today and what really matters in this game on Monday. So that’s where my focus has been. I did get a chance to relax. So I haven’t seen anything like that, and I’m not going to be able to speculate on it right now.”
Manziel has a point, sort of, but if that were the case, no one is entirely sure why the footage and pictures would all be coming out now unless there is a massive smear campaign going on.
Deadspin noted that the song playing in the background of the video was “March Madness” by Future, which was released in March of this year, after the point in which Manziel had entered rehab. In addition, the Instagram user who posted the picture quoted a Future and Drake track that wasn’t released until late September, which doesn’t necessarily prove anything, but certainly is more circumstantial evidence that the video isn’t as “old” as Manziel is claiming it could be.
Still, with all of that in mind, is it that big of a deal even if the videos were from this week, to the point where Manziel should lose his starting job? Only Mike Pettine can answer that question, but there is little doubt at this point on the field that Manziel is the best option for the Browns, and if Johnny Football didn’t have the reputation that he does, these particular photos and videos wouldn’t even register as a concern.
Such is the life of Johnny Manziel however, and if the videos are proven to be from this week, it shows a lack of great decision making during his off days, if nothing else.
