Cleveland Browns may be turning away from Johnny Manziel

Oct 18, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel (2) warms up before the game between the Cleveland Browns and the Denver Broncos at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel’s latest off-the-field actions have the team questioning whether they can trust him to be the starter.

The Cleveland Browns once again find themselves at a crossroads with quarterback Johnny Manziel.

Just when it seemed like both the team and player could concentrate on what happens on the field, the bye week interceded, a video came to light showing Manziel in a bar in Texas, and the road to (relative) normalcy is once again littered with potholes.

Browns head coach Mike Pettine set things off today by saying that Manziel’s latest social media starring role is “disturbing – very.”

“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, according to ESPN. “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,”

When asked if Manziel would still be the starting quarterback when the Browns take the field Monday night against the Baltimore Ravens, Pettine uttered nine words that shook the Manziel Mafia to its core

“I’m not in a position yet to answer that,” Pettine said.

“My hope for him is whatever those choices he makes are healthy choices and are good for him as a person.” – Josh McCown on Johnny Manziel

While we still believe that Manziel’s actions during his time off last week have been blown a bit out of proportion, especially when compared to some of his past incidences, it is easy to understand where the Browns and Pettine are coming from.

On the day that Pettine announced that he was entrusting Manziel with the starting role for the season’s final six games, he also let Manziel know that he needed to take that responsibility seriously. Manziel doubled down on that by stating that he was “not going to do anything that is going to be a distraction to this team or be an embarrassment to the organization.”

And that seems to be where the latest disconnect lies between Manziel and the coaching staff.

While it seems clear that Manziel has one definition of what it means to not “be an embarrassment,” the Browns have a different one altogether and being featured in headlines on websites like TMZ and Busted Coverage fall into that category

Manziel has adopted an attitude that he will not let his life be run by websites that are just looking for clicks and he deserves some admiration for that. After all, if you let the bottom feeders win, then we all lose.

But it is fair to question if maybe, just maybe, in the days right after he earned another shot at being a starting quarterback in NFL and promised his coach he would not do anything that would wind up in a headline on a tabloid website, Manziel should have kept it as quiet as a puppy walking on cotton during his time away from the team.

Manziel should not be made a prisoner by social media, but he also needs to be aware that any time he steps out in public someone is going to be watching and just waiting to hit the button on another photo, video or post about what he is up to. It is a lesson that his coaches and teammates, most notably Joe Haden, have repeatedly told him only to see it fall on deaf ears.

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While Manziel was certainly within his right to spend his free time as he saw fit, and taken alone what he did in Texas is not horrible, it also wouldn’t have killed him just lay low for a few days.

As disappointing as it is that these kind of stories continue to surround Manziel and the Browns, just as disappointing is the reaction from Manziel’s so-called fans, a group that could just as easily be labeled Pettine Haters.

Throughout the day this group has been quick to bash Pettine for daring to point out that their may be a problem with their golden boy. Rather than worrying about Manziel as a person, all these “fans” care about is seeing Manziel running around on the field next week and “making plays.” (Sadly, those plays rarely involve getting the Browns into the end zone, but that is a subject for another day.)

But in their haste to attack the club, they seem to be missing the fact that the Browns have done just about everything they can to help Manziel rebuild his life. We’ve always thought it was ridiculous when people would call for the Browns to release Manziel, but that doesn’t mean he should not be held accountable when the situation calls for it.

Ever since Manziel exited a rehabilitation facility earlier this year we have repeatedly written that the No. 1 priority should be helping him get better as a person, with football being a distant No. 2.

And if that means putting Manziel back on the bench until he gets it, then that is a small price to pay.

There are limits to what the Browns can do, of course, as they can’t make Manziel change his ways if he doesn’t want to.

Which means we may be in for more days like today when it comes to the Browns and Manziel.

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