Browns Cut Troubled QB Manziel

'Johnny Football' is out of a job
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 11, 2016 12:53 PM CST
Browns Cut Troubled QB Manziel
Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel speaks with reporters following a loss last season.   (AP Photo/Scott Eklund, File)

Johnny Football has been tossed aside. Quarterback Johnny Manziel, the scrambling, Heisman Trophy-winning college star who hasn't come close to matching his hype in the NFL, was released Friday by the Cleveland Browns following two turbulent and troubling seasons, reports AP. Manziel's unceremonious exit—the team sent out a brief statement with a few stats and no comment—ends a drama-filled stay in Cleveland for the 23-year-old, who faces an uncertain future on and off the field. For the first time since he started throwing a football as a kid while growing up in Texas, Manziel isn't a wanted player and he's contending with possible criminal charges for a recent domestic incident in which his ex-girlfriend claimed he struck and threatened to kill her.

The Browns drafted Manziel in the first round in 2014, hoping he could not only be their long-term solution at quarterback but revive a sluggish franchise. Instead, he was a two-year headache that wouldn't go away. Cleveland couldn't handle any more lies, parties, or distractions. The Browns supported him as long as they could, but his decision to skip the team's season finale against Pittsburgh—he had a concussion at the time—for a trip to Las Vegas and a second domestic incident in three months was more than the team could tolerate. In his short career with the Browns, he went 2-6 as a starter. (More Johnny Manziel stories.)

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