Okay, okay, yes, yes, I couldn’t help myself last night.
I was out to dinner with some buddies, but couldn’t wait to get home. Because I wanted to watch the Cockamamie Kid, the rookie who is the darling of the City By The Lake. (At least until the Cavs start preseason.)
Of course, Johnny Manziel is a side show like no other this season. But, in this period when those of us who reside in the Province of Pigskin are chomping at the bit for some real gridiron action, such peripheral tomfoolery is compelling.
So, just after I click on the telly, which is before I even sit down after locking the front door of my abode, there’s Johnny Foolish, appropriately #2 on your scorecard, where Otto Graham once toiled. At QB for the once fabled Cleveland Browns.
He just missed a short out to a receiver, on what was a 2d & 7. Running back to the huddle, he held up a finger.
Was he signaling a hurry up play to his teammates, I wondered? Number one?
No, it was the universal single finger salute toward the Washington bench. Or, so it seemed. Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden didn’t say anything.
Did he really flip the Skins the bird in the middle of the game?
So, he did.
Manziel: “I felt like I did a good job of holding my composure throughout the night, and you have a lapse of judgment and slip up.”
Uh, I’d say so. No, actually, it wasn’t a slip up. It was a yet another stupid moment, another exposure of his stunning lack of maturity. The kind that is still embedded in the DNA of this very talented, but even more infantile football player.
I’ve always had a soft spot for the Browns. One, because my Detroit Lions have been even more woeful since the halcyon 50s. Two, because they were the team on TV here every week during my youth.
Where have you gone Marion Motley? Dante Lavelli, come on down.
And such has been the mismanagement of the Browns since their reincarnation, that choosing a clown like Manziel seemed like a prudent decision.
Manziel’s stay in the NFL will not come to a good end.
— Seedy K
It is a wonder that for the short time I watched last nite, I saw only one flag for roughing the passer. I’d have expected that opportunities to drill the “media-magnet’ would have been too tempting to pass up.
New coach and only the 3rd string QB performed. The new worst job in sports, coaching the Browns.
I grew up watching Paul Warfield, Jim Brown and Milt Plum in black and white every Sunday fall afternoon with my dad. I remember hearing from my dad about the great Otto Graham, who played before the days television. If you lived in Louisville in the 50’s and early 60’s, then you were a Browns fan. Things started to go downhill when the Browns decided to trade Len Dawson, which turned out to be one of the worst trades in football history. The thrill of Browns football is long gone and not likely to be resurrected in the foreseeable future. When does the NBA season start?
Otto Graham was a long time ago. But NOT before the days of television. I watched him a bunch on Sundays in the 50s.
Don’t forget Lou “The Toe” Groza,Yep, the Browns were my team too back in the day