The only shred of good news regarding a recent social-media tirade from former Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel is that he has deleted it.
Here’s what happened. ESPN Cleveland recently posted a clip of comments Manziel made in August 2025 on the Nightcap podcast. When the subject of his only NFL team came up, Manziel said this: “I sit here today, and I go back and forth with, ‘Man, am I gonna let Cleveland off the hook and just like let it go, or am I gonna sit here with hate and animosity in my heart for the rest of my life?’ I finally sit here today, I’m like, ‘Fuck it. I think I’m gonna be pissed at them and hate them forever.’ . . . . It is what it is, man. No love for the Browns. I’m rooting for 0-and-16 seasons every season.”
On Monday, Tony Rizzo of ESPN Cleveland responded to Manziel on the air.
“Bro, what did . . . anyone do for you, except root for you to win?” Rizzo said. “And when it went south, OK, that’s how it goes, as [with] Baker [Mayfield]. But, but — did someone hurt him? Is he a jilted lover? Is there some — did I miss — was there an incident where somebody attacked him? . . . Why the hate? Why in the hate for the team that drafted you?”
In response, Manziel teed off on Twitter, directing at Rizzo a four-letter word starting with “c” that rarely is used in the American lexicon. (In England, however, they throw that word around nonchalantly — while regarding “wanker” as something akin to “Voldemort.”) The full content of the tweet was quoted by Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing.
Again, Manziel has deleted the tweet. Which is good. The deeper question, as Rizzo articulated, is why does Manziel hate the Browns? They ended his round-one free-fall in 2014. They gave him multiple chances to play in the NFL like he did at the college level.
The 10-month-old Nightcap appearance included an acknowledgment from Manziel that he had some responsibility for the outcome. “But when it comes down to it, you take all of that aside and you throw it away, you look in the mirror and you say, I let an amazing opportunity slip,” Manziel said. “It’s on me.”
In the Netflix documentary from 2023, Manziel admitted that he watched “zero” film during his two years with the Browns.
It’s possible for Manziel to both admit that he didn’t do enough to thrive (or even survive) in the NFL while also holding a grudge about the Browns. Yes, they drafted him. They also haven’t developed a true franchise quarterback since returning to the league as an expansion team in 1999.
Mayfield was moving in that direction, but they opted to pursue Deshaun Watson after Mayfield’s fourth season. Which, for multiple reasons, has been a disaster.
Still, Manziel does himself no favors when he goes on the offensive. Especially when he does it in an objectively offensive way.
Even if the Browns failed him, it’s hard to imagine a different outcome to his NFL career if he’d been drafted by any other team. Indeed, once he was cut by the Browns and available to be signed by anyone, no one ever did.
Think about that one for a second. A first-round quarterback, cut after two seasons, and never given a chance anywhere else.
He was immature then. At 33, there’s still enough immaturity to create periodic issues for him. And while he’s lingering on the fringes of the media (he has a podcast, but the most recent episode was posted at least two months ago), the window on his relevance is more closed than open.
And even the niche he’s catering to by fighting an overmatched and out-of-shape streamer or by launching an over-the-top social-media assault on a Cleveland radio host who was asking a fair question won’t stick around for much longer.
Read the full article here
