Courtesy: susanshan.com
“The Decision II” has finally come to an end and while the return of LeBron James to his hometown team of the Cleveland Cavaliers is great news for the city, their football team just received a boost it needed in an unconventional way.
As of right now, the Cleveland Browns are surrounded by bad PR. All-everything wide receiver Josh Gordon has thrown himself and his organization back into the laughing stock they are usually thrown into by Week 10 of every NFL season. And they just so happened to draft a guy who is more box office than the entire organization has been since their return to Cleveland in 1999.
Johnny Manziel has received more attention, criticism and publicity for his antics, escapades and public appearances off the field, more so than his performance on it. He is a very talented football player and it appeared he cleaned up his act a tad more once the NFL Combine came around and he started to realize his professional career was about to begin.
“Johnny Football” has toned it down — somewhat — and now has more room to breathe and focus on football with LeBron returning to Cleveland. He can be himself and not be mobbed with every reporter in Cleveland, or at least a large sum of them and national reporters, due to the media circus that encompasses a persona like James’.
Think about it: James essentially had the world of professional sports under his control. He controlled ESPN and dictated the way producers were going to schedule their shows, format the sounds and video of their telecasts as well as crunch down the rest of the highlights and packages people care about. Business in the NBA seemingly stopped because his decision was that important to the league. He even dictated to the world when he would make his decision because he is heading to Brazil Saturday for Sunday’s World Cup Final.
LeBron has that much power on a national global scale. Manziel does not… which is a blessing for the rookie and he may not even realize it just yet.
Courtesy: USA TODAY Sports
It is likely the two will hang out at some point or another. It is likely Manziel will still receive a lot of press just because of how he slipped late in the first round of the NFL Draft, how successful and controversial he was in college and just his polarizing personality in general. But Johnny can focus on football more with “The King” back in town. The Browns needed this as much as the city of Cleveland did.
Keep in mind, Manziel is not guaranteed to be the starting quarterback this season as Brian Hoyer is still the frontrunner at this stage of the offseason. Nothing is guaranteed in the NFL.
Will Manziel see time this season? Absolutely… and probably more than most rookies given the franchise he plays for.
But LeBron coming to town will limit exterior distractions that aren’t self-imposed on the 21-year-old gunslinger.
*** Key phrase: self-imposed ***
