Jonathan Paul Manziel

[Mark O]

@texasag1969 said:

http://espn.go.com/blog/cleveland-browns/post/_/id/11550/manziel-deserves-credit-for-taking-tough-step

As some have said this is just the first step, albeit the most important. You can't turn you life around until you look in the mirror and admit it needs turning around.

This guy is more of a fighter than most here give credit for. He will learn a lot and be given a lot of tools to continue the process AFTER rehab. This is a good thing for him and the Browns.

He has far more skills than most here realize as a QB or the front office would have closed the door long ago. I tend to rely on folks like Haden and Dansby to tell me that rather than internet web site members who have not been at practices against him every day to give me an informed opinion.

All of those things are wonderful but as someone else said here earlier...rehab isn't going to make him taller or his arm stronger.

Could potentially be the greatest comeback in the history of the NFL if he can actually live up to the hype. I don't see it happening though but if he is still on the Browns, I hope it does since that means we're winning games.

[RoyceRolls]

@tim-couch-pulls-out said:

Man, you really nailed it there. Bridgewater sure turned that franchise around.

Can't believe they won it all last night. Crazy shit. Good for the Vikings.

cant take anything away from the Vikes, but it's a real shame that cleveland couldn't close that game out.

I can't believe they didn't give Crowell the ball at the 1 yard line...

[bermeck08]

Rehab is for quitters

Bermeck (bad taste, but funny)

[hoorta]

@mark-o said:

I hope someone kicks his ass in the rehab place and he can never play for the Browns again.

Oh how many chances have we given Puffy Gordon? Johnny deserves at least one. Look at the positive- he'll have plenty of time to study the new playbook.

@brownsfan4evr said:

Well, after watching Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith discuss Johnny on their show, they seem to think Johnny has MORE than an alcohol problem. They seemed to be insinuating drug usage without coming right out and saying so.

See below.

Zombo said:

Well, he wasn't rolling that dollar bill because it was going to fit better in a stripper's twat.

Zombo

Nailed it.

@jcam222 said:

Lol I drank a 12 pack in the rehab parking lot before checking in 25 years ago. Felt like I needed that last hurrah. I've been sober since.

Great for you. But I've heard plenty of stories about guys nailing a 12 pack the minute they got out of rehab. Here's the poster girl.

[DieHardBrownsFan]

You can go to the finest rehabilitation center in the world. Bottom line is you HAVE TO WANT to quit. No one is going to make you quit.

[USFBrown]

@diehardbrownsfan said:

You can go to the finest rehabilitation center in the world. Bottom line is you HAVE TO WANT to quit. No one is going to make you quit.

Totally agree. I hope he wants to. Its always hard to do but even more difficulty for a early twenties kid.

IMO I don't think he'll make it. He hasn't shown that he has what it takes between the ears. I hope he gets clean. Still think he's a shit qb but I hope for his sake he can get the help he needs.

[TexasAg1969]

@diehardbrownsfan said:

You can go to the finest rehabilitation center in the world. Bottom line is you HAVE TO WANT to quit. No one is going to make you quit.

You bet!

The most positive step in all this is that in order to actually go to rehab he had to check his ego at the door knowing all the things he said in the national spotlight about living his own life his way which obviously did not work out so well. His first step was far harder than any of us would have to make with the same problem because none of us has to live their life in a fishbowl like he has done since winning the Heisman. This step is a most humiliating, public eating of humble pie for a guy who didn't even like the name Johnny Football.

I told hoorta in a pm a few weeks back that this is the one thing I wanted to see happen. I made those thoughts more public here as a retired professional counselor in hopes that maybe he would see it (since I know he used to visit the texags.com website anonymously when playing there). I don't know that he did, but this is exactly the step he needs to make. They will teach him there how to keep making the subsequent steps as anyone here who has faced these kinds of problems can attest.

[cdl15]

I bet he's already in nfl substance abuse program. but because of confidentiality it hasn't been reported yet

[Westside Steve]

Seriously if there is a positive aspect at all it would be that Johnny truly and sincerely wants to make the most of his opportunity.

I don't personally put a lot of faith in rehab clinics and don't believe they have a very high rate of success. Also I believe the type of alcoholism that could maybe be helped in a clinical situation would be actual physical dependence that builds up over many years. I think we like to believe that any bad habit is an addiction. It makes lack of willpower and poor choices seem something other than what they are.

WSS

[Westside Steve]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/06/AR2010080602660.html

[Tim Couch Pulls Out]

@roycerolls said:

cant take anything away from the Vikes, but it's a real shame that cleveland couldn't close that game out.

I can't believe they didn't give Crowell the ball at the 1 yard line...

Bad coaching, man. Do you expect anything less?

[Kosar_For_President]

Good for him. Football is one thing, life is another. Very proud of the kid. If football is in his cards so be it. Life is more important.

[GuNNerGatSKi]

@cdl15 said:

Nothing like your 21 yr old franchise 1st round qb entering rehab. Complete joke all around. Hope he picks up Heroin next.

Your a fucking idiot. Do you even know the first thing about alcoholism or addiction? And wishing someone picks up heroin? That's some fucked up shit. Addiction is no fucking joke nor something to wish upon anyone.

Lemme tell you something, towards the last couple years of my addiction when I was strung out on opiates I turned to the big H because it was much cheaper and easier to get than Oxycontin. That one drug tore my entire life apart in a matter of months. And to hear somebody wish that upon someone else makes me fucking sick. Keep your fat fucking mouth shut before wishing something on someone that you don't know a goddamn thing about.

And FYI if Johnny is truely a addict/alcoholic, then he has a DISEASE,it is no different than cancer or diabetes and IMO its worse and much more lethal. Its not something to laugh about. Once someone crosses that invisible line into addiction, they are robbed of the luxury of choice. Their was a point in my life where I would have rather been dead than continue on with the hell I simply existed within. For all intents and purposes addicts deep in addiction are dead, we are shells of our real selves. Its really not a laughing matter at all.

Its pretty sad how a large number of board members post about the topic of addiction in such a nonchalant manner like its something light hearted and funny. I will blame it on ignorance for now but damn does it make one realize how out of touch with compassion and reality most people are.

[TexasAg1969]

Pretty decent Mary Kay article on it.

http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2015/02/how_johnny_manziel_raised_his.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[BrownsFan4Evr]

Cut Manziel. Go apologize to Hoyer and try to get him signed.

[calfoxwc]

Alcohol addiction is a terrible thing. Rich or poor, it can hit so many.

Who doesn't have a friend or acquaintance over the years, that has

been affected by alcoholism, if not personally been affected?

So sad. Good luck to Manziel - I really hope he can get himself straightened out.

[MasterDog]

@cdl15 said:

I bet he's already in nfl substance abuse program. but because of confidentiality it hasn't been reported yet

And that's properly the reason he went to rehab.

[Westside Steve]

Yeah that sounds like a reasonable explanation. That he has been in the NFL substance abuse program all season long and nobody from the media reported it. That's probably it.

WSS

[MasterDog]

No, he was properly recently put in the program..

[MasterDog]

@miktoxic said:

skip bayless is such a prude that anyone drinking a beer is an alcoholic to him.

hell, might as well burn me at the stake now.

But Skip is at least half right when he called Johnny an alcoholic and liar.