It has seemingly become more and more clear that Johnny Manziel does not share much in the blame for the incident he was involved in at the Byron Nelson Classic over the weekend. Despite early indications from TMZ that Manziel was in a minor altercation with one of his buddies, multiple reports, and the Irving Police, now say that it was an overzealous autograph seeker.
An ESPN story from Pat McManamon and Jeremy Fowler provides a lot more details than were previously available. While one should note that a bulk of the new information was sourced from an associate of Manziel, it painted a clearer picture of what happened:
A close friend of Manziel who was one of eight people with his group told ESPN that the quarterback became frustrated when a picture-seeking fan in a Texas A&M polo consistently heckled and grabbed the quarterback’s arm in the course area. As Manziel left the golf course, the fan yelled, “good luck never starting in the NFL,” the friend said. Manziel said “What?” and threw the bottle, which the friend claimed was empty, toward the ground as his friends told him to ignore the heckler.
The fan was about 20 yards away and Manziel threw the bottle in the fan’s direction but not close to his body and more like a football spike, said the friend, who remembered the fan yelling, “Good throw, Johnny.”
(The friend’s account of the water bottle differed from that of the police spokesman, who said Manziel threw a 32 oz. water bottle, which was 3/4th’s full.)
Eventually, according to Manziel’s friend, the harasser told the Browns quarterback: “Ryan Tannehill is way better than you.” If we’re measuring NFL performance thus far, that’s more or less true. Tannehill, after all, got a second contract.
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Nevertheless, that wouldn’t be something Manziel would enjoy hearing when he’s just trying to enjoy a weekend away from the grind with his friends. Whether it was this insult or something else, everybody has a boiling point. As I wrote yesterday, this wouldn’t be a story with nearly anybody else, but Manziel just seems like a magnet for these types of incidents. It’s the second time he’s been harassed by a fan, and police have gotten involved after retaliation.
Ultimately, more so than staying out of the limelight off the field, the Browns are just hoping Manziel performs better than he did in his short stint last season, provided he can wrest the starting job away from the immortal Josh McCown. Perhaps that goes partially hand-in-hand. But, as Gronk has shown, drinking and distraction will be tolerated if you play among the best in the league at your position on a winning team.
from The Big Lead http://ift.tt/1EO1kqq
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