Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam sent a stern message to Johnny Manziel, Josh Gordon and Justin Gilbert about being more professional moving forward. The owner also threatened to cut the players if they do not clean up their acts.
Here are Haslam’s comments to his team via the Akron Beacon Journal.
“I think is the ultimate team game and I think a player who can’t show up for meetings, can’t make practice, can’t make weight lifting, disrespects himself,” Haslam said after Sunday’s season-ending loss in Baltimore. “But I think more importantly, and I think this is what these young guys miss — they disrespect the team, the coaches, the staff, the fans. There’s a lot of people in our organization whose livelihood depends on how well we do, and we’re not going to tolerate people who are irresponsible no matter what round they’re drafted in.
“So these young guys, we’re going to give them a chance. They’re young kids. We’re going to work with them. Hopefully they’ll grow up, but if they can’t grow up and they can’t be responsible to their teammates and the coaches and our great fans, then they won’t be with the Cleveland Browns.”
The comments from Haslam are almost certainly a response to what happened with the three youngsters this weekend. Manziel was fined for showing up late to his treatment session Saturday for his hamstring injury; Gordon was suspended for the final game because he missed a walk-through; and Gilbert was deactivated for the game for being late a team meeting Saturday night.
Gordon supposedly was late because he attended a party Manziel threw on Friday night that led the organization to send officials to the rookie quarterback’s apartment.
It was a poor ending to Manziel’s forgettable rookie season. Not only did he get hurt in his second start, but he then got in trouble the week of the season finale he missed because of his injury. He also didn’t get a vote of confidence from head coach Mike Pettine, who said the QB position for the Browns is “still a big question mark” moving forward.
