Johnny Football’s burgeoning nightmare in the green room was going to end with the Cowboys on the clock, of course it was. Of course Jerry Jones was going to save him on the night he became Johnny Freefall.
They were chanting “John-ny Foot-ball, John-ny Foot-ball” at Radio City, but Jones, with so much money invested in Tony Romo, ignored them, and grabbed offensive lineman Zack Martin of Notre Dame.
But Johnny Manziel had a safety net because Woody Johnson was on the clock at 18, and heavens to Favre and Tebow, we know how much the Jets owner craves stars and filling those PSLs.
Yup. Everyone was bracing for Johnny Jet.
And only a few months ago, it seemed like a fine idea. The Jets weren’t sold on Geno Smith, so why the hell not? But the signing of Michael Vick pours water on that idea.
The quarterback water is muddied and muddled enough with Smith versus Vick, and John Idzik and Rex Ryan needed defensive backs and a receiver and a tight end and a guard more than they needed turning the keys to the offense over to Johnny Football and the return of another circus.
Because unless you are all in on Johnny Football, unless you are willing to risk your job and reputation that Marty Mornhinweg can turn him into Johnny Super Bowl, you’d better pass, and not give up just yet on Smith.
And then it happened:
The announcement came that the Eagles had traded the 22nd pick to the Browns.
“John-ny, John-ny, John-ny,” they chanted inside Radio City.
And here came Roger Goodell walking to the podium with the card.
“Johnny Manziel.”
A huge roar erupted.
Johnny Freefall no more.
Johnny Football versus Brian Hoyer instead.
The Browns have seemingly led the league in quarterback Mistakes by the Lake. It didn’t hurt that owner James Haslam has a man crush on Johnny Football.
But is he boom or bust?
Is he a gimmick quarterback likely to be too reckless to last Every Given Sunday, or can he be Fran Tarkenton?
Is he The Next Big Thing, or is he too small?
Is he a star in the making, or the football Ringo Starr?
The answer probably lies somewhere in the middle, but no one in the NFL knows for sure.
Soon he was sitting for a press conference wearing his Browns cap.
“It’s great for me to end up there, at a team that has fans that are as passionate as I am on the field,” Manziel said.
A few minutes later, a small contingent of Browns fans — one carrying a Johnny Cleveland sign, another with “Pumpkinhead” on the back of a Browns jersey, another one wearing a Johnny Super Bowl shirt — began a chorus from the back: “John-ny Cleve-land [barking sound], John-ny Cleve-land [barking sound].” Asked for his reaction, Johnny Cleveland smiled and said: “It’s pretty cool. I’m ready to get to Cleveland now.”
He was asked whether he thought Jones might draft him.
“I don’t know if the world could have handled that, honestly,” he said, and smiled.
I asked him if he thought he might end up in New York.
“I felt any team that was on the clock, whatever the situation was, I felt there was a possibility, so never did I get too high on one or too low on the other and think there wasn’t a possibility,” he said. “This was a little bit of a wacky draft and I think everybody knew going into it that there was some uncertainty and not everyone knew exactly where each player was going to be picked.”
It wouldn’t be a Johnny Football story, of course, without a bizarre twist.
A story from ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio: “A homeless person was out on the street,” Haslam said. “He looked up at me and said, ‘Draft Manziel.’”
Johnny Freefall tried to enjoy being held hostage in the green room with his family, even without his pre-draft beer.
“We had fun. … This is a great day for me, something that I’ve thought about since I was a kid,” he said. “For me there’s no disappointment, and no anything. I was drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft, and for me … it almost blows my mind. It’s just hard for it to sink in because it’s such an honor, it’s such a dream come true. It truly is incredible.”
Still, that dream was on its way to becoming a nightmare.
“To get that call was really a weight lifted off my shoulders,” Johnny Freefall said.