NFL Cleveland Browns

The Clear Hate for Johnny Manziel is Warranted

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By @MichaelTerrill

Johnny Manziel

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If you do not want to hear or read anything about Johnny Manziel today, it is probably best to completely avoid anything that has to do with sports. It is the Cleveland Browns quarterback who is going to dominate the sports world for the next 24 hours due to his obscene gesture towards the Washington Redskins on Monday night. Everyone has an opinion about the rookie, and that includes former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback and current CBS NFL Analyst Boomer Esiason.

“I’m telling you right now, he is not even remotely close to being ready,” Esiason on his radio Show on WFAN in New York. “If he opened as the starting quarterback in Pittsburgh in Week 1, he would get his ass kicked. And his ass would be driven into the ground. Because I’m telling you, other teams hate this guy. Hate him.”

There is certainly no argument there. Manziel is a joke, and anyone who defends him is an even bigger joke.

Reading the message boards on various web sites this morning, I saw several people trying to say that Manziel flipping off the Redskins’ bench on national television was no big deal. Let me stop anyone right there who actually believes that. Manziel flipping off an opposing team is a very big deal. It proves that he is nowhere near ready to lead an NFL team into battle.

The reason for Manziel showing his true character during Monday Night Football was in reaction to what the Redskins said to him.

“I can tell you what the statement was that set him off,” Redskins safety Ryan Clark told ESPN Radio’s “Mike & Mike” on Tuesday morning. “The statement was, ‘This isn’t college anymore and these people are faster than you are.’ He didn’t like it. And that was me cleaning up the statement. That’s pretty much what it was.”

The statement is as true as it gets. The NFL is far from college football, which means Manziel better stop treating it like one big house party. Partying in Las Vegas during one of the most important offseasons of his life, showing up late to team meetings and displaying a clear lack of maturity in front of the watching football world is not how rookies should prepare for the professional level. If anything, Manziel has proven that he is not very intelligent, which is one more reason why he must ride the bench for a few years.

“Yeah, OK. You’re gonna get wrecked, son,” Esiason continued on his radio program. “You know, the NFL is about as unforgiving a place as there is on God’s green earth. It is a men’s place. It is for people that have a very, very strong constitution. Whether or not you can handle it is going to be determined by your maturity level. And right now, this kid is a baby.”

Some people may call any publicity for the Browns good publicity even if it is bad simply because they are one of the least talked about teams in the league. I beg to differ. If anything, football fans outside of Cleveland can plainly see that the Browns are so far from contention it is not even funny. Their quarterback situation is in such dire need that “Maybe Rex Grossman” was trending on Twitter during Monday night’s contest. Grossman is a quarterback who has not played in the NFL in two years and who has been a laughing stock pretty much wherever he has suited up.

The Browns were expected to announce their starting quarterback today. I have a feeling that move is going to get pushed back. If there is one certainty about the quarterback situation it is do not expect the starter to be Manziel. It is quite clear he is going to be washed out of the league in two years.

Michael Terrill is a Senior Writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @MichaelTerrill, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google. 

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