As much as the publicists, marketers and agents want Johnny Manziel to be a true NFL superstar right this second. Sorry, he’s not there yet. Cleveland Browns Coach Mike Pettine is making the right call here- Brian Hoyer should start. When I say marketers and publicists, I am speaking about ESPN and NFL Network as well.
When it comes to the Man ZEAL that Bristol, ConnectiCleveland has for Manziel, they are essentially his marketing and publicity agents, they are not reporting on him.
You know that already. There’s been enough bashing of ESPN when it comes to their disgustingly wall-to-wall coverage of Johnny Manziel, or Lebron James for that matter. The world does not need another article/essay/post/blog/tweet/status update pointing this out, and criticizing it. It does matter though, because the only reason we’re even having this discussion in the first place is because of all that over-hype and nonsensical conjecture.
Johnny Manziel should not be expected to win the starting job right now. It’s not realistic to assume that a late first round pick will be a franchise cornerstone by week one of his rookie season. Then again, Madison Avenue, and their partners in the media have made Manziel something unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. NFL Network made his being slightly late to one preseason meeting a headline news story. People with functioning brains actually treated his appearing in a candy commercial as legitimate news.
The NFL Today Analyst Boomer Esiason did a conference call yesterday to discuss the upcoming season.
“Like I said to Johnny Manziel a couple weeks ago, he’s not ready. There’s no way, he’d be ready to start in Pittsburgh versus the Steelers in week one,” Esiason said.
“And I’d say that about the other guys well,” he said, referring to Blake Bortles and Teddy Bridgewater.
Norman Julius Esiason does believe that all three QBs will end up starting sooner rather than later, as he believes all three of their teams will struggle.
Boomer’s cohort, NFL on CBS Analyst Dan Fouts was on the call too.
“If Hoyer struggles the first three weeks, I would expect with the bye week to give Manziel the start after that,” Fouts said.
“When you look at Dick Lebeau’s record as a defensive coordinator against rookie quarterbacks, the Cleveland Browns would be wise not to start Manziel against the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Fouts said.
So there you go, maybe we’ll see Johnny Manziel become first string October 5th, week five versus the Tennessee Titans. Until then, it’s all sizzle and no steak.
Paul M. Banks owns and operates The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports, Yahoo! and the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He’s been a guest on news talk shows all across the world and been featured in hundreds of media outlets including NFL Network, Fox Sports 1 and ESPN2. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)