More NFL offseason: League minicamp dates | Latest news, notes
You probably have yet to hear about it, but sometimes when Johnny Manziel goes out in public, people take pictures of him. And sometimes he's photographed with alcohol. And sometimes even inflatable swans.
The public outrage surrounding Manziel is constantly at a fever pitch but Manziel said at a rookie Play 60 event Friday he's "not going to change."
"I'm not going to change for anybody," Manziel said. "I'm going to enjoy my time off."
The event, part of the NFL Rookie Symposium, was held at the Browns facility. And you can bet there was some media coverage around it.
Much of the media coverage related directly to Johnny Football, who's getting sick of seeing his name in headlines.
"I want to wake up with a week and not have my name going through something," Manziel said. "And I'm working on getting better at that, but if I want to go back home and spend time with my friends or go out and enjoy my weekends I absolutely have the right to do that."
It's absolutely Manziel's prerogative to do whatever he wants on his own time, especially in the offseason.
"I don't think I'm doing anything wrong," Manziel said. "Everybody on the weekends goes out and enjoys their life. Just for them, they don't have people that when they walk into a place pull out their phone and all they want to do is follow me around and record everything.
And it's dumb we spend so much time talking about whether or not he can win on the field when he's doing what he does off the field. We've seen him succeed.
Not at the NFL level, of course, but it's not like the hand-wringing around Manziel's offseason is a new thing. This happened last year and things turned out just fine for Manziel and Texas A&M.
Whether or not the Browns will win is a different matter and if they don't, people will assuredly point to Manziel's off-field antics as a cause if he struggles, right or wrong. (Mostly wrong.)
But that won't mean a change for him in the future.
