The Cleveland Browns reportedly lied to cover up an incident in which Johnny Manziel showed up drunk to a practice.
According to NFL Media’s Mike Silver, Manziel showed up drunk to a Wednesday practice and the Browns said publicly that he was being put through concussion protocol.
“I was with a Browns player yesterday,” Silver said on NFL Network. “Johnny Manziel going into what would have been a start late in the season, showed up drunk at practice on a Wednesday.
“The Browns lied and said he was in the concussion protocol. Let me repeat that: the Browns lied to try and to protect, and I would argue enable, this irresponsible and very troubled young man.”
This echoes the same reported rumor of Manziel missing practice while drunk which surfaced the weekend after this would have taken place, a rumor which then-head coach Mike Pettine denied.
If this is accurate, it would put the date at Wednesday, December 30, which is when the Browns publicly announced that Manziel was in concussion protocol. That weekend, Manziel was spotted in Las Vegas and didn’t show up at the Browns facilities on Sunday morning. At the time, many questioned what Manziel was doing partying in Vegas the weekend after being put in concussion protocol. The answer, it seems, is that he wasn’t concussed at all.
It’s absolutely reprehensible behavior by the Browns, if true. Using concussions as an excuse to cover up Manziel’s irresponsible behavior and give the team an excuse to bench him for the rest of the season is just stupid and downright enabling. They even stuck to their story for a month afterward, when they would have known that Manziel didn’t require concussion treatment at all. Perhaps they wanted to keep a media sideshow away, but Manziel’s own behavior brought that upon the team anyway.
