BEREA — Johnny Football kept falling and falling and landed in the Dawg Pound.
Johnny Manziel, college football’s most entertaining player with the reputation for pulling off magical
plays on the field and making headlines off it, was selected with the No. 22 overall pick in the NFL
draft on Thursday night by the Cleveland Browns, who hope they have finally found their franchise
quarterback.
Manziel sat patiently in the wings at Radio City Music Hall, waiting nearly three hours for his name to
be called as everyone from Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers to the league’s official Twitter account
tweeted about him squirming in his chair backstage.
Then the Browns, who made two earlier trades, made a third with Philadelphia and nabbed the polarizing
and electrifying Manziel.
As he walked onto the stage to meet Commissioner Roger Goodell, Manziel rubbed his fingers together, a
signature “money” gesture that endeared him to some fans and annoyed others critical of his reputation
for partying and the “inadvertent” violation of NCAA rules involving signing autographs that got him
suspended for a half last season.
In Cleveland, some Browns backers celebrated Manziel’s selection like the team had just won the Super
Bowl. Of course, the Browns have never even made it to the NFL’s showcase event and haven’t won a title
since 1964 — a golden anniversary that will arrive in December. But Manziel brings hope to a city that
has witnessed little but losing since the Browns returned as an expansion team in 1999.
Manziel now must back up all the hype around him.
“Obviously, the team really wants to win and they want to win now,” Manziel said. “I’ve been a winner
everywhere that I’ve been. Whatever the situation may be, I’m going to work extremely hard to put myself
in the best position to continue that trend of being a winner.”
Manziel’s size — he’s listed at just under 6-foot — scared away some teams, but he believes his
playmaking skills translate to the pro game.
“I’m used to that by now,” he said. “In the two years that I’ve had in college, I think I’ve been very
scrutinized and nitpicked, as far as my game goes. For me, the one thing I’d like to say is I improved
from my first year playing to my second. I got better. All I’m trying to do throughout these next few
years is continue to get better and hone in on my skills and become a better player. I think if I do
that, I can be really good.”
Manziel is expected to compete with starter Brian Hoyer, who showed promise last season before suffering
a knee injury.
Browns general manager Ray Farmer said he reached out to Hoyer, who is looking forward to competition at
quarterback and told him to “bring him (Manziel) on.”
Manziel brings an instant buzz and national relevance to the Browns, who have made the playoffs just once
since in the past 15 years and have lost at least 11 games in each of the past six seasons. Cleveland is
on its third coach in three years, but Mike Pettine is inheriting a team with potential and five Pro
Bowlers on its roster.
And now, he’s got Manziel — and the circus that comes along with him.
Pettine, who was in New York when Tim Tebow played with the Jets, said he’s not concerned about all the
extras that accompany Manziel. He expects the Heisman Trophy winner to be warmly received by his new
teammates.
“I think you’re going to see guy that’s going to come in and go to work, he’ll compete right out of the
gate and immerse self in wanting to learn,” Pettine said. “He’s not walking into the building with an
entourage. He’s walking in as a teammate and I think when you talk to the people at Texas A&M,
the people who have been around him before, once he’s inside the locker room, he’s one of the most
well-liked guys on the team.”
The Browns have to hope the No. 22 pick doesn’t haunt them again. That’s the pick they also used on
quarterback Brady Quinn, whose first-round slide in 2007 was similar to Manziel’s drop, and they also
drafted Brandon Weeden two years ago at 22. He was released in March.
Manziel is already selling tickets. The team’s sales staff received dozens of season-ticket renewals in
the minutes after Manziel was picked, a bell ringing in the upstairs of Cleveland’s headquarters with
every sale.
Pettine said Manziel won’t be promised anything other than a chance to play.
“I don’t think you just hand jobs to people when they come in.”
Earlier, as Manziel waited, the Browns made two trades and selected Oklahoma State cornerback Justin
Gilbert with the No. 8 pick.
With the first deal of the draft, the Browns moved down five spots and acquired Buffalo’s No. 9 pick and
first- and fourth-round picks next year. Cleveland then swapped picks with Minnesota, acquiring a
fifth-rounder before taking Gilbert, who they plan to play on the opposite side of Pro Bowler Joe Haden.

“He’s long. He’s fast. He’s explosive. He’s a playmaker,” Farmer said of Gilbert. “He’s got great arm
length. He’s got the speed. He’s got the ball skills. I know some people have questioned his tackling.
We cover like Browns, tackling was good, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be great.”
Gilbert wasn’t sure the Browns were that interested in him until he was getting ready to head to New
York.
“It’s a dream come true,” Gilbert said in a conference call. “I became friends with him (Haden) not too
long ago and he’s a great guy and I’m looking forward to playing with him.”
The 6-foot, 202-pound Gilbert had seven interceptions last season, returning two for touchdowns.
“I pretty much can do it all,” Gilbert said. “I’m an all-around cornerback.”
Cleveland entered the most important draft in its expansion era with 10 picks, ample ammunition for
Farmer, promoted when president Joe Banner and GM Michael Lombardi were fired in February, to add talent
and depth to a team that went 4-12 last season and fired coach Rob Chudzinski.
During the winter, the Browns, who entered the draft with five of the first 83 picks, did an exhaustive
study on quarterbacks with Louisville’s Teddy Bridgewater reportedly emerging as the top candidate.
In the end, Manziel was their man.